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Author: 



MacElwee, Roy Samuel 



Title: 



Wharf management, 
stevedoring and storage 

Place: 

New York 

Date: 

1921 



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MacElwee, Roy Samuel, 1883- 

Wliarf management, stevedoring and storage, by Boy 
S. MacEhveo ... and Thomas R. Taylor ... New York, 
London, D. Appleton and company, 1921. 

xix, 350 p. illus. (incl. forms) tables (1 fold.) diagrs. 22^"". (^On verso 
of half-title: Shipping series; training for the steamship business. 5) 

"References" at end of several chapters. 






l._Shipping. 2. Wharves. 3. Longshoremen. 4. Stowage. 
Thomas Rothwcll^jomt authors ii. Title. 



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WHARF MANAGEMENT 
STEVEDORING AND STORAGE 



SHIPPING SERIES 

TRAINING FOR THE STEAMSHIP BUSINESS 

EDITORS: 

Emory R. Johnsoi^ Ph.D., Sc.D. 

Dean of the Wharton School of Finance and Com- 
merce, University of Pennsylvania. 

Roy S. MacElwee, Ph.D. 

Director of the U. S. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic 
Commerce. 

1. Ocean Steamship Traffic Management. 

By G. G. Huebner, Ph.D. 

Training in the responsibilities of the broker, the 
freight agent and other traffic agencies, and m the 
forms used in the shipping business. 

2. Marine Insurance. 

By S. S. Huebner, Ph.D. 

Training in the important responsibilities of the marine 
insurance agent and broker. 



3. 



The Law of the Sea. 

By George L. Canfield, LL.B., and George W. Dalzell. 

Legal relations, rights, duties, and obligations of ship- 
pers, steamship owners, operators, masters, and sea- 
men; the legal relations of the ship from construction 
contract to sale as salvage. 



4. 



Merchant Vessels. 

By Robert Riegel, Ph.D. 
Their types, uses, tonnage, measurements, and con- 
struction; some things the steamship man ashore should 
know about ships. 

5. Wharf Management and Stevedoring and Storage. 

By R. S. MacElwee, Ph.D., and Thomas R. Taylor, 
A.M. 

Duties of the pier superintendent, receiving clerks, tally 
men, and stevedore foreman. Includes wharf layout 
and 'construction, cargo-handling machinery, port charges 
and dues, stevedoring, longshoremen, labor problems, 
etc. 

6. Steamship Operation. (Projected.) 



T-230D 



!•>! 



u: 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 

STEVEDORING AND STORAGE 



BY 

ROY S. MacELWEE 

DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF FOREIGN SERVICE, GEORGE- 

TOWK university; formerly director of 

THE UNITED STATES BUREAU OF FOREIGN 
AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE 



AND 

THOMAS R. TAYLOR 

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF THE UNITED STATES BUREAU 
OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE 




ILLUSTRATED 



D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
NEW YORK LONDON 

1921 



1' 



1 



COPYRIGHT, 1921. BY 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



J) 511 



\f\\5%. 



i 



I 



PRINTED HI THE UWITED STATES OF AMERICA 



TO 
THE HON. JOSHUA W. ALEXANDER 

sometime Secretary of Commerce of the 
United States and Chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries 
of the House of Representatives, in appre- 
ciation of his contribution to the upbuilding 
of American foreign trade, shipping, and 
safety at sea, and the friendship and cour- 
tesy shown to the authors while serving 
under him in the Department of Commerce 
and as his representatives to the conference 
for relief of congestion at the Port of 
Havana, Cuba, 
THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 



EDITORS' PREFACE 

This is the fifth volume of a series dealing with the business of 
ocean shipping and transportation. The first volume, Ocean Steam- 
ship Traffic Management, by Professor G. G. Huebner, bore the 
following Editors' Preface: 

"This volume upon the management of ocean steamship traffic is 
the first of a series of manuals designed to assist young men in 
training for the shipping business. The necessity for such a series 
of manuals became evident when, as a result of the Great War, the 
tonnage of vessels und^r the American Flag was, within a brief 
period, increased many told. To carry on the war, and to meet the 
demands of ocean commerce after the war, the United States Gov- 
ernment, through the Shipping Board and private shipyards, brought 
into existence a large mercantile marine. If these ships are to con- 
tinue in profitable operation under the American Flag, the people 
of the United States must be trained to operate them. Steamship 
companies, ship brokers, and freight forwarders must all be able to 
secure men necessary to carry on the commercial and shipping 
activities that make use of the ships. A successful merchant marine 
requires ships, men to man the ships, and business organization to 
give employment to the vessels. 

"In its Bulletin upon 'Vocational Education for Foreign Trade 
and Shipping' (since republished as 'Training for Foreign Trade,' 
Miscellaneous Series No. 97, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Com- 
merce, for sale by the Superintendent of Documents), the Federal 
Board for Vocational Education includes among other courses sug- 
gested for foreign trade training two shipping courses upon subjects 
with which exporters should be familiar, namely, 'Principles of 
Ocean Transportation' and 'Ports and Terminals.' Although such 
general courses are helpful to the person engaging in the exporting 
business, a training for the steamship business as a profession re- 
quires much greater detail in the knowledge of concrete facts of a 
routine nature. An analysis was made of the various divisions of 
the steamship office organization and it was suggested to the United 
States Shipping Board that as no literature existed of sufficient 

vii 



Vlll 



EDITORS* PREFACE 



practicability and detail, several manuals covering the principal 
features of shore operations should be written. 

"The response of the Shipping Board was hearty. The Board 
appointed Mr. Emory R. Johnson of its staff, then conducting an 
investigation of ocean rates and terminal charges, as editor. The 
Federal Board for Vocational Education designated Mr. R. S. 
MacElwee, then engaged in the preparation of studies in foreign 
commerce. Before the project was completed Mr. Johnson severed 
his connection with the Shipping Board in 1919, and in January, 
1919, Mr. MacElwee became Assistant Director of the Bureau of 
Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Department of Commerce. The 
interest of the editors in the project did not terminate, however, and 
their close cooperation has been voluntarily continued out of con- 
viction that the works will be helpful. 

"The books have been written with a view to their being read 
by individual students conducting their studies without guidance, also 
with the expectation that they will be used as class text-books. 
Doubtless colleges, technical institutes, and high schools having 
courses in foreign trade, shipping business, and ocean transportation 
will desire to use these volumes as class texts in a manner outlined 
in the 'Training for the Steamship Business,' by R. S. MacElwee, 
Miscellaneous Series 98, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, 
Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. It is expected 
that evening classes and part-time schools organized under the 
patronage of the Federal Board of Vocational Education, Chambers 
of Commerce, and other interested organizations will find the manuals 
useful. Should these volumes accomplish the desired purpose of 
giving the American people a somewhat greater proficiency in the 
business of operating ships, they will have proved successful." 

This volume upon Wharf Management, Stevedoring, and Storage 
is the first of its kind to be published. It deals comprehensively 
with the part of the shipping business that has not received adequate 
consideration in the past. The book shows that large economies can 
be brought about by the more expeditious and economical handlmg 
of freight at terminals and by the subsequent quicker turn-about 
of vessels. The book should be of value, not only to those having 
direct charge of wharf administration, stevedoring, and other 
terminal operations, but also to others who are desirous of knowing 
how the ocean commerce of the United States can be handled more 
economically. rpj^^ Editors 



^ 



AUTHORS' PREFACE 

In presenting a volume upon Wharf Management, Stevedoring, 
and Storage, the authors realize that a subject so complicated can be 
treated only suggestively rather than exhaustively. So far as is 
known, this is the first effort to put between covers the vocation 
of loading and dispatching ships from the administrative standpomt. 
We, therefore, trust that this volume will take its place in the series 
upon ship management and operation and will blaze the trail to a 
closer and more scientific study of this problem. We are firmly con- 
vinced that the principal economies in ship operation and the success- 
ful competition of the American merchant marine on the high seas 
depend upon these terminal operations. Only through the sys- 
tematic and painstaking study of all the elements involved in the 
efficient dispatch of vessels can these economies be accomplished. 
We trust that those who read these pages will gain interest in more 

efficient wharf management. 

Roy S. MacElwee 
Thomas Rothwell Taylor 



CONTENTS 

TASK 

Editors' Preface vn 

Authors* Preface « 

CHAPTER 

I. Wharf Efficienjy and Shipping Profits ..... i 

The wharf superintendent x 

Problems of the directors . i 

Good management of ship essential 2 

Profits in a quick turn-around » 

Costs per day in ship operation 3 

Interest and depreciation . ^ 3 

Items of expense in ship operation 4 

Cost of holding a vessel in the Port of New York .... 5 

Port movements 5 

Port charges 5 

Stevedoring costs in relation to other charges .... 8 

Economies that could have been effected 9 

By more careful work 9 

By faster work 9 

Wharf charges and dues 'o 

Charges against the vessel " 

Major group ** 

Minor group *' 

Charges against the cargo 12 

Definition of items in the account 12 

Definitions vary at different ports 13 

Difference between dockage and wharfage . . . . 13 

Difference in application of charges 14 

Pier rent ^4 

Cost of stevedoring 17 

Stevedore rates at Philadelphia 17 

Satisfactory statistics lacking 22 

Shipping Board calculations ........ 22 

Methods of reducing terminal costs and time in port ... 24 

Increased profits by skillful stowing 29 

Loading to maximum capacity 29 

Kinds of tonnage 29 

Increased profits through prevention of damage .... 32 

Prevention of damage to the ship or injury to crew ... 32 

Prevention of damage to the cargo . . . ... 33 

Saving through reduced insurance rates and depreciation 

charges 33 

II. From Land to Water Carrier 34 

Loading and unloading 34 

Movement of cargo by lighters 34 

Grain 35 

Bunker coal 35 

Heavy articles 35 

Dangerous articles 35 

River and canal barges 35 

m 

XI 



Xll 



CHAPTER 



II. 



III. 




CONTENTS 

PAGE 

From Land to Water Carrier — Continued. 
Loading and unloading — Continued. 

Direct connection by wharves 35 

Wharf equipment 37 

Kinds of cargo 37 

Bulk cargo 38 

Grain 38 

Oil and coal 38 

Liquid cargo 39 

Ships' supplies 39 

Uniform package freight 39 

General cargo 40 

Dangerous cargo 41 

Precious cargo 41 

Types of carriers 42 

Side-port vessels 4a 

Hatch vessels 42 

All-hatch vessels 43 

Ocean-going colliers 43 

Tank vessels 43 

Refrigerator ships 44 

Wharf Ofhce Organization 45 

The general wharf superintendent 45 

The pier superintendent 4^ 

The stowage clerk 4^ 

The store clerk 47 

Baggage department 47 

Baggage master 47 

The receiving department 48 

The chief receiving clerk 4^ 

The assistant receiving clerk 48 

Hours of work 49 

The cargo-sheet clerk 49 

The lighter clerk 49 

The extension clerk $0 

Tallymen or checkers SO 

The stevedore 5* 

The chief or boss stevedore 5* 

Longshoremen 5* 

Timekeeper ..." 5* 

The delivery department 53 

The detective force 54 

The Longshoremen 55 

Longshoremen and the importance of their work .... 55 

Nationality and skill 5^ 

Classification according to skill 57 

Classification according to trade 57 

Classification according to actual work performed ... 58 

Ways of building up a skilled personnel 58 

Methods of hiring longshoremen 58 

, Gang work 59^ 

Union 62 

Wages ^4 

Working conditions and their betterment 67 

National Adjustment Commission 68 



CONTENTS 



Xlll 




i 



HAPTER '^*'* 

V. Accounting and Paper Work 74 

Steamship accounting 74 

The voyage account 74 

Papers for inbound freight 77 

Tally slip 77 

Lighter tally sheet 7* 

The discharging receipt book 79 

Records of damaged cargo 80 

Report of damaged cargo 8* 

Special damage report • .8a 

Over and short landed • • -83 

Monthly report of cargo in excess (over) of bill of lad- 
ing quantity 84 

Notice to remove merchandise 85 

Storage order 87 

List of goods sent to general order store 88 

Customs lien notice 89 

Delivery order . 9^ 

Papers of the (outbound) receiving clerk's office ... 91 

The delivery notice 9* 

Dock receipt 9* 

Record of measurements 94 

The cargo list or sheet 97 

The ship's freight manifest 97 

Outward foreign manifest • • 97 

Memorandum of merchandise for the wharf superintendent 97 

The stowage plan 100 

VI. Cargo Transfer: I. Methods of Transfer 101 

Introductory statement ^01 

Transfer through side ports ^06 

Transfer by unassisted man power 106 

Transfer by hand truck 106 

Hand-truck transfer and loose-pulley fall 107 

Transfer by mechanical conveyor 108 

Transfer through all-over hatches 109 

Prevailing American system "O 

Brief description of three common methods . . . . .111 
Single boom and up-and-down fall with skid . . . .111 
The burton-and-fall or yard-and-stay system . . . .112 

The drum-end man ^'5 

Cargo mast "7 

VIL Cargo Transfer: IL Cargo Winches and Signaling . . 120 

Standard practice '^^ 

Rigging ^*° 

Control '22 

Capacity '^^ 

Kinds of winches '^2 

Right-hand and left-hand «" 

The winch drum '24 

The drum end 124 

Special types of winches '24 

Electric ship's winches 126 

Dock winches '27 

Care of electric winches 130 

Starting the draft *32 






XIV 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



CHAPTER 

VII. Cargo Transfer: II. Cargo Winches and Signaling— Continued 

Signaling ^5* 

Stop "33 

Lower slowly '3* 

Up slowly *34 

VIII. Cargo Transfer: III. Drafts 'S^ 

Slings "3^ 

Transfer of freight '39 

Loading a safe '39 

Loading barrels and hogsheads >39 

Loading bags of sugar, grain, coffee, etc. »39 

Loading beef '*' 

Loading eggs '♦* 

Loading dried apples '4* 

Loading pigs and billets '4* 

Loading steel rails '43 

Loading automobiles . ^ '44 

Loading assembled locomotives '44 

Most important types of containers '45 

IX. Types of Cranes and Derricks '4^ 

Transfer by crane '*" 

The stiff-leg derrick '47 

A-frame derrick '4-* 

Traveling stiff-leg derrick '49 

Guy derrick '^^ 

Locomotive crane '*' 

Tower crane '5° 

Traveling revolving tower crane '5® 

Hammerhead crane '5' 

The gantry J5» 

The full-arch gantry crane "53 

Hinged-boom traveling semiportal gantry crane . . ' ^^1 

Shop crane "S* 

Heavy-duty cranes '^ 

Bridge crane 'r^ 

Straight-line crane 'J3 

Relative advantages of ship's tackle and shore cranes . . ' ^^^ 

Ship's tackle versus crane equipment 'H 

Cranes versus ship's tackle '^5 

Use of specialized equipment . . . • •. • • ' ^zt 

Continuous-motion or belt-conveyor transfer equipment . * '"J 

The banana unloader '°* 

Vertical belt conveyors '7° 

The elevator conveyor '7* 

Free-flowing bulk freight '73 

Bunkering or coaling of ships '74 

X. Stowage and the Stowage Plan '7^ 

Difficulty of stowing '7^ 

Planning the stowage '7^ 

Planning by the booking agent '7^ 

Planning by the stevedore '7j 

Methods of stowing '7 

Preparation of the hold '7° 

Stowage of bulk freight '7» 



CONTENTS 



XV 




' 




J 



\ 



PAGE 
CHAPTER 

X. Stowage and the Stowage Plan— Continued. 
Methods of stowing — Continued. 

Stowage of package freight '79 

Mechanical aids '79 

Dunnage '°° 

Size of hold gangs '°' 

Drawing up the stowage plan '^^ 

Discussion of sample stowage plans 182 

Saluda '?2 

Selected 23,000-ton steamer '02 

Portsmouth '*4 

XL Stowage and Stowage Factors 187 

Desirability of getting full cargo paying high rates . . .187 

Commodities paying high rates • * ^^7 

Getting a full cargo 'ol— 

Explanation of stowage factors 1^9^ 

The average stowage factor 191 

Selecting cargo by lists of stowage factors .... 191— 

Lessened importance of obtaining full cargo . . . . '93 

Stowing cargo with low stowage factors i94 

Reducing stowage factors '95*' 

Advantages of reduction '9" 

Reduction in war period '97 

Reduction by eliminating broken stowage '97 

Deck loads 200 

XII. Laws Governing Stowage 201 

Necessity of laws and regulations 201 

Laws relative to seaworthiness of vessels 202 

Governmental laws applicable to all vessels .... 202 

Governmental laws applicable to passenger vessels . . . 204 

Rules of insurance underwriters 204 

Rules of classification societies 205 

Laws relative to the stowage of certain classes of goods . . 206 

Grain 207 

Live stock ^^7 

Dangerous goods 2°^ 

XIII. Stowage for Security *i5 

Damage to ship or crew . . . • 215 

Improper position of the center of gravity 215 

Shifting of cargo 219 

Dangerous goods 221 

Damage to cargo *22 

Dangerous goods 223 

Moisture ^^3 

Extremes of temperature 224 

Chafing and crushing 225 

Lack of ventilation 226 

Pilfering 226 

Vermin 227 

Wear and tear in transfer 228 

XIV. Clearing the Wharves . . 230 

Movement of merchandise on the wharves 230 

Hand trucks 231 



XVI 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



I 



f H APTEIt 

Yiv Clearing the Wharves — Continued. . 

Movement of merchandise on the wharves-Continued. ^^^ 

Electric trucks 232 

Telphers . • • ' ' xr' 1 2«i 

Time study of movement at New York " 

Sorting coffee on wharves at New Orleans ^53 

Wharf congestion at Havana, Cuba ^ 

Discussion of report of joint commission . . . • • ^ 

Removal of goods from wharves at Philadelphia .... 272 

XV. Delivery of Merchandise from the Wharf * * * ' ' ^g^ 
Delivery from wharf to drays '.282 

Cartage delays •••.•*• ^%e 

Relief through a store-door delivery system ^^5 

Delivery from wharf to railroad cars •''''[ 2^9 

Loading box cars * ^Zg 

General instructions | . ! 289 

Car loading • *. * * u 206 

Delivery from transit shed to warehouse =*»" 

• 299 

XVI. Warehousing and Storage ' 

Warehousing ! ! ! 302 

Storage ! ! ! '. 302 

Notes ^ joj 

Definitions '. ! '. 308 

Fundamentals | * -jj 

Instructions ] ! ! 313 

Stowing ' • • *. \ ', 321 

Warehousing of merchandise ^^^ 

Explanation of terms . • ' ' ,'. ,21 

Standard warehouse rules and regulations ' * ' ' lA 
Standard basis for classification of goods for storage . . 326 

Average occupancy of warehouse space • ' ; ; ; \^{ 

Handling . • ^ --^ 

Uniform cost accounting .- • ". 

Classification of expenses in detail . . • • *, . ' * :,q 

System Ulustrated by a standard warehouse constructed in 1920 338 

347 

Index 



FIG. 
I. 
2. 

3. 
4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 
8. 

9. 
10. 

II. 

12. 

13. 
14. 

15. 

16. 

17. 
18. 

19- 
20. 
21. 
22. 

23. 
24. 

25. 
26. 
27. 
28. 
29. 
30. 
31. 
32. 

33. 
34. 

35. 

36. 

36a, 

37. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGB 

Side ports. A Great Lakes package freight steamer ... 42 

Plan of wharf-office organization 45 

Voyage account 75 

Expenses not apportioned to voyage accounts • • • • 7° 

Tally slip to delivery clerk ......•• 7° 

Tally slip to receiving clerk . . • . • • • • 7o 

Lighter tally sheet 79 

Page from the discharging receipt book 80 

Ship officer's report of damaged cargo oi 

Dock superintendent's or receiving clerk's report of damaged 

cargo .* * V 

Special report of unusual or extensive damage or in cases of 

excessive claims 02 

"Over and short landed" form 83 

Report of excess cargo |5 

Final removal notice ' 

Storage order to trucking company to transfer merchandise 

from wrharf to public warehouse 87 

Record of cargo sent to general order stores . . . . 88 

Lien notice to the collector of customs 89 

Truckman's pass to permit him to remove goods from the 

wharf. 91 

Delivery notice 9* 

Dock receipt 93 

Measurement record 94 

Cargo list 95 

Official manifest for the collector of customs .... 9" 

Notice of space sold 97 

Stowage chart 99 

Stowage chart • • • • • , • '^^ 

Stopping the swing when loading with single boom and skid . 112 

Yard-and-stay or burton system "3 

Mast booms and winches between two hatches . . . .114 

Drum-end man at work ^'5 

Ship boom and cargo mast system 1 18 

Blocks and shackles attached to cargo mast equipment, Chelsea 

Piers, N. Y "9 

Light duty rig • • • • 121 

Blocks at the peak of a boom. Heavy duty rig . . . . I2I 
Masthead view of right and left hand winches, winch runner, 

boom, draft, and hatch opening 123 

Electric dock winch — stationary . . . . . . .127 

Electric dock winch with portable control switch . . . 129 

Portable electric dock winch (light duty) ..... 130 

XV ii 



XVlll 

FIG. 
38. 

40. 
41. 
42. 

43. 
44. 

46. 

47. 
48. 
49. 
50. 

53. 
54. 

56. 

58. 

59- 
60. 

61. 
62. 

63. 
64. 

65. 
66. 

67. 
68. 
69. 
70. 

71. 
72. 

73. 

74. 
75. 
76. 

77- 

78. 

79. 
80. 

81. 

82. 
83. 
84. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAOS 

Stop Ill 

Continue lowering . . • . • *-5+ 

Up slowly (short movements of the wrist) 134 

Up , : ; * u * '^* 

Up slowly. Signaled by bringing fingers and thumb together 

in pinches ^^5 

Single hook ^30 

Rope sling . ^37 

Long rove and bite . . . . • ^37 

A web sling for soft bags ^37 

Cant hooks, used to transfer barrels i3o 

A dangerous method of transfer ^3° 

Platform sling or airplane '3o 

Slinging a safe 39 

Barrels slung "married" ^39 

Slinging a hogshead ^39 

A web sling draft of bags ^4^* 

A net sling for beef V .■,*** If I 

Platform sling with angle irons to protect fragile cases . . 142 

Platform for loading iron and other metals in pigs ... 142 

Chain sling for steel rails . ^4-3 

Double chain sling for large iron pipes ^43 

Slinging automobiles J44 

Loading assembled locomotives ^44 

A timber stiff-leg derrick J^O 

Guy derrick JfZ 

Masthead top irons of a guy derrick i4o 

Spider plate and shackles ^^o 

Guy spider plate J^ 

Locomotive crane 1 • * j* V * * tct 

A traveling revolving tower crane for shipyard work . . 151 
Heavy duty revolving hammerhead tower crane . . .152 

A gantry crane with traveling hoist ^53 

A full-arch gantry revolving jib crane . . • • . • 154 
Half-arch or semiportal gantry revolving jib crane with 

fixed jib • •.., • • . • ^55 

A light-duty full-arch (portal) gantry revolvmg jib crane with ^ ^ 

hinged boom • u u* • j 

A heavy-duty full-arch gantry revolving crane with a hinged 

L - . . • 157 

boom -i^ 

Shop crane • • * *, ' ,^_ 

A bridge crane. Capacity unloading coal, 400 tons per hour I59 

A straight-line wharf crane ^^^ 

Revolving gantry cranes , 

Straight-line cranes , 

Banana unloader ?^ 

A vertical belt conveyor »*•*.* 

Loading ship by means of a vertical belt conveyor and gravity 

roller conveyors to the wings ^72 

Inboard profile chart % u * tQc 

Storage plan of SS. Portsmouth making two ports of call . i»5 

Stability curves 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



XIX 



PAOB 
FIG. 

85. Hand truck ^31 

86. Improper loading ^31 

87. Proper loading ^31 

88. Illustrating cleats and chocking . . . . *, .* / ^^ 

89. Assorted loading— 200 bags or sacks and 50 barrels m 30- 

foot car J ^ ' u ' ^^^ 

90. Assorted loading— 100 bags or sacks, 60 cases, and 60 bar- 

rels in 36-foot car ^93 

91. Assorted car loading ^94 

92. Typical bag or sack loading ^95 

93. Warehouse methods 300 

94. Warehouse methods 3^1 






I 






,• (• 

i 

i 



I 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 

STEVEDORING AND STORAGE 



CHAPTER I 

WHARF EFFICIENCY AND SHIPPING PROFITS* 

Wharf Superintendent. — The main consideration of the wharf 
superintendent is to help make a profit for the steamship company to 
which he is responsible. The merchant marine of any country is the 
sum total of all those privately owned and operated ships that rep- 
resent the capital investment of their owners and must be so operated 
as to earn a return on that investment. The company's freight 
agent may show great energy and considerable skill in securing cargo 
for the ship, but his abilities are checked by the prices fixed by 
supply and demand in the cargo-space market as reflected in the 
prices that we know as steamship rates. Of course, in abnormal 
times when demand far exceeds the supply, many companies may 
exist under various kinds of bad management and still make a profit ; 
in such times it is not very difficult for the freight agent to fill his 
ship at high prices for the space, even with poor service and extrava- 
gant costs. 

Problems of the Directors. — Likewise, the gentlemen around 
the green table who lay out the voyage of the ship, the ports at 
which they are to call, the services inaugurated, etc., must show 
rare judgment and knowledge of the world's commerce, and they 
prosper in accordance with their ability to judge the world's markets 
for steamship transportation. However, skillful as they may be, 
their abilities are limited largely by the condition of the world 
shipping — matters quite beyond their control. Fortunes were made 

* By R. S. MacElwee and Thomas R. Taylor. 

I 



i 



2 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

at the beginning of the World War not because of any particular 
ability on the part of those who made them, but because of the 
fortunate circumstance that they happened to have ships when ships 

were badly needed. 

Good Management of Ship Essential.— Good management 
may be shown in the operation of the ship, as well as in its con- 
struction and design. The extent to which good management is 
shown is reflected in the company's success and profits. Efficient 
management ashore and afloat is essential to success in time of 
normal shipping conditions because of the peculiar intensity of inter- 
national maritime competition. 

Even if all forms of management afloat and ashore be good and 
efficient, in normal times of close competition and low freight rates 
the pier superintendent can make or break the steamship company 
by his ability or lack of ability to handle freight quickly and ex- 
peditiously over the wharves at the company's terminals and by the 
skill of his stevedores in stowing freight for the maximum yield for 
each voyage. There is no single point in the whole shipping business 
where efficiency of organization and management is so important in 
spelling loss or profit as at those points under the jurisdiction of the 
wharf superintendent. By a quick turn-around of the ship, shorten- 
ing her days in port, by loading her to her maximum earning capacity, 
and by prevention of claims for damage or loss, the wharf super- 
intendent can be the greatest single profit-maker of a steamship 

company. 

Profit in a Quick Turn-around.— The earning power of a ship 
is measured largely by the percentage of idle days in port as com- 
pared with the active days steaming at sea. Recent statistics show 
that even under the pressure of war conditions many of the Shipping 
Board's fleet, and also many ships of private lines, spend more than 
half of the days in a year in port. One set of figures showed a 
relation of fifty-three days in port to forty-seven days at sea. When 
a ship is tied up for loading or discharging, or for repairs, or for 
other purposes, it represents simply a liability to the company owning 
her. She represents an asset only when she is carrying cargo from 
point to point. Freight rates are paid to have cargo transported— 
this is the service to be rendered. The ship is earning only when it 
is rendering this service. It is, therefore, important to attain quick 
discharge and loading of the ship at port in order to make her pay 
by carrying cargo. 



WHARF EFFICIENCY AND SHIPPING PROFITS 3 

Costs Per Day in Ship Operation.— The amount of the over- 
head costs in port are appalling to the layman not familiar with 
shipping. In fact, many of the deck and engine personnel of the 
new American merchant marine who received their training in the 
United States Navy or nautical schools have little knowledge of 
cargo matters in merchant shipping, and are lacking in appreciation 
of many matters, especially time. The overhead charges while in port 
of a large-sized cargo-carrier, at present-day ship values (1920), is 
from $2,000 to $4,000 per day. 

To be explicit as to the daily cost of operation we may take 
figures of a few small vessels, representative of the average small 
or middle-sized tramp. These are operating costs for complete 

voyages (1919): 

1. The Mariners Harbor, 3,535 dead-weight tons, had the fol- 
lowing average daily operating costs for two voyages of 33 days 
each: First voyage, $855.34; second voyage, $678.40; average for 
the two voyages, $766.87 per day. To this may be added the over- 
head charges against depreciation and interest, $287.67 per day. 
This makes a total of $1,054.54 per day for the two complete voyages. 
Even yet, the loss of earning power while held in port is not included 

in these figures. 

2. The Mineola averages for a voyage of 37 days $1,080.36 
per day. To this must be added depreciation and interest, $333 per 
day, making a total of $1,413-36 per day for the voyage, excluding 
loss of earning power while in port. 

3. The Sacramento, 7,462 dead-weight tons, made a trip from 
San Francisco to the west coast of South America and up to Wilming- 
ton, N. C. (1918). The average daily expenses were $1,169 and 
the depreciation and interest $614, making a total of $1,783 per day, 
excluding loss of earning power while in port. 

4. The Amacortes, 7,478 dead-weight tons, made a trip from 
Seattle to the west coast of South America and back to Baltimore 
(September and October, 1918), with an average of $1,317-75 per 
day for operating costs, and $577.85 for depreciation and interest, 
totaling $1,895.60 per day for the voyage. 

Interest and Depreciation. — Mr. Rossiter, for some time 
Director of Operations of the United States Shipping Board, in a 
hearing before the Ways and Means Committee in October, 1919, 
stated that the interest, insurance, and depreciation amounted to 
about 16 per cent of the value of the ship. Therefore, when a ship 



1 



4 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

is in port this one item alone amounts to a large sum, quite aside 
from the wages and subsistence of officers and crew, the fuel that is 
necessary to keep the ship warm in winter, to operate the winches, 
electric dynamos, and other machinery on board, and such charges as 
berthage, watching, etc. Considering, therefore, operating cost, in- 
surance, depreciation, and interest on the investment, and then the 
loss in earning power for every day the ship is not moving goods 
from place to place, one will readily see that the amount of daily 
loss for a ship in port piles up. 

Items of Expense in Ship Operations.— A list of items by 
which the expenses of operating a ship are calculated is given below ; 
an actual case is given as an illustration. 



Details of Direct Operating Expense 

Type of ship F"^*', , • i. 

Size of ship 8,700 dead-weight tons 

Speed of ship 10/2 knots per hour 

Fuel ^^^^ 

Trade route Between New York and 

West African coast 

Total length of voyage 12,800 nautical miles 

Voyages per year 3 

Total tons cargo carried per year (full cargo in each direction) : 

Outbound 20,1 36 

Inbound , ^^>8^^ 

Total 42,002 

Freight rates: 

Outbound •••• $25 per ton 

Inbound 20 per ton 

Total revenue from freight charges $940,720 

Direct operating expense: 

Fuel $165,167 

Loading and discharging ^jJ'^SL 

Repairs and maintenance 69,000 

Wages 65,750 

Port charges 39,i4o 

Agency fees 23,510 

Subsistence ^3,269 

Stores and supplies 11,200 

Husbandry (management) 4,oOO 

Total $549,459 

Insurance, depreciation, and interest are not considered to be direct 
operating expense. 



WHARF EFFICIENCY AND SHIPPING PROFITS 



Account 


Cost per annum 


Cost per diem 


Tnfpr«*^t at" ^ ner cent • 


$38,525.00 
46,230.00 

65,790.00 

46,230.00 

28,893.75 
38,525.00 

2,157.50 


$I05.5S 


Oenrpriation at 6 Der cent « 


I26.b6 


Reserve for maintenance and repairs 

per dead-weight ton per month. . 
Insurance: 

Hull and machinery at 6 per cent. . . 

IVf arine at l^A oer cent 


180.02 

126.66 
79.16 


W^ar Risk at ^ ner cent 


105.55 


Protective and indemnitv 


5.91 

3.98 


Seafnen's ..•..••••••••••••••••••• 






Total 


$266,351.25 


$733.49 



Cost of Holding a Vessel in the Port of New York 

The excessive cost of a vessel in port is given in detail by Mr. 
T. W. Cleworth, of the Port Facilities Commission of the United 
States Shipping Board.^ 

Port Movements. — The vessel arrived in New York from 
Genoa, Italy, in August, 1918, with 2,713 tons of wines, hats, cherries, 
marble, and general cargo, and sailed the same month with 3,783.1 
tons of sugar, cocoa, canned goods, and Red Cross supplies for 
Archangel, Russia. The total time spent in port was 14 days, 17 
hours, and 24 minutes. 

Time Spent in Port by a Selected Steamer 



Minutes 



At anchor, Brooklyn, off quarantine 

At Brooklyn pier waiting commencement of discharge 
Discharging and loading cargo at Brooklyn pier.... 
At loading berth awaiting completion of coaling. . . . 
Time between departure from loading berth and 
clearing port 

Total 




14 
15 
00 

00 

55 



24 



Port Charges. — The charges against the vessel during the 
period that it was in port were as shown in the following table : 

*T. W. Cleworth, "Economies Effected by the More Rapid Turn-around 
of Vessels in United States Ports." Mimeographed memorandum, 1919. 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 

Port Expenses of a Selected Steamer 



INWARD charges 

Charges against vessel 

Pilotage from sea to anchorage 

Towage from Red Hook to Brooklyn pier. . 
Taking Captain from Bay Ridge to Battery. 

Wharfage (dockage) 

Shifting vessels by tugs 

Watching ship 

Tonnage tax (6 cents per net register ton; 

3,147 tons) 

Customs fees •.•••,*: /• 1 ' 

Boatmen running lines at berthing of vessel. 

Total inward charges against vessel 

Charges against cargo 

Stevedoring ,- . * 

Discharging 2,713 payable tons at 62.5 cents 

per ton ; .*•;'* 

Extra labor (overtime, lost time, tiering, 



etc. ) 

Winchmen 

Clerking 

Coopering 

Watching cargo 

Lights for ship and cargo • • 

Miscellaneous charges— extra service ot cus- 
toms inspectors, etc " 



Total inward charges against cargo, 
Total inward charges 



$78.47 
117.50 

15.00 

3,100.00 

191.25 

56.00 

188.82 
20.50 
3.75 



$1,695.63 

1,990.98 
220.80 
503.00 
366.50 
240.00 
185.00 

181.00 



$3,771.29 



OUTWARD CHARGES 

Charges against vessel 

Pilotage at sea 

Towage from pier to stream 

Wharfage (dockage) 

Shifting vessel by tugs 

Watching ship ;;; * *i* * * x 

Surveys (Board of Port Wardens) 

Clearance fees (including $5 brokerage) .... 

Boatmen running lines at unberthmg of vessel 

Additional expense incurred on account ot re- 
turn of vessel to port after clearance to 
make repairs 



Total outward charges against vessel, 



$ 99.68 

112.50 

2,400.00 

115.00 

144.00 

1500 

7.70 

3-75 



681.82 



$5,382.91 



$9,154.20 



$3,579.45 



WHARF EFFICIENCY AND SHIPPING PROFITS 7 



Charges against cargo 
Stevedoring 

Loading 5,398 tons at 65 cents per ton ... 

Extra labor (overtime, lost time, tiering, 

etc.) 

Winchmen 

Clerk hire 

Coopering 

Watching cargo 

Lights for ship and cargo 

Dunnage 

Hire of hoister 

Building bulkheads and placing dunnage . . . 
Removing wooden lining in between decks . 
Miscellaneous charges 



Total outward charges against cargo. 



Bunkering charges 

Loading and trimming i,539 tons of coal . . . 

Hire of hoister 

Tallying coal 



Total bunkering charges 
Total outward charges 



CHARGES NOT CLASSED AS INWARD OR OUTWARD 



Port pay-roll (15 days) 

Supplies consumed in port — 15 days 

Coal 

Water and oil 

Interest— 5 per cent on $770,500 for 15 days. 
Depreciation— 6 per cent on $770,500 for 15 

days •. • • 

Reserve for maintenance and repairs at 05 

cents per dead-weight ton per month 

Insurance — hull, marine, war risk, etc 



Total charges not classed as Inward or 
Outward 



Total charges 

Inward 

Outward 

Others (above) 



Total daily expense (15 days) 



$3,508.70 

1,421.18 
37140 
647.76 

53.00 
136.00 
172.00 
258.38 
125.00 
617.68 
110.00 

94.50 



$7,515.60 



$2,925.20 

57.50 
53.60 



$3,036.30 



$14,131.35 



$1,469.16 

1,685.21 

44.59 

1,583.25 

1,899.90 

2,700.30 
4,818.90 



$ 9,154.20 
14,131.35 
14,201.31 



$14,201.31 



$37,486.86 
$2,499.12* 



•Not $4,371.45 as given by Cleworth, who included charter hire in his 
calculation. 



8 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

Stevedoring Costs in Relation to Other Charges.— The 
cost of stevedoring cannot be measured alone by the amount of 
money expended in the handling and transfer of cargo. The 
time consumed in loading or discharging must be considered an 
important factor in determining cost because of its influence on 
wharf charges and overhead expenses. By using the labor of only a 
few men a cargo may possibly be discharged at a relatively low 
actual cost, but the operation may cover a period of several weeks, 
during which time the vessel is not earning money and the harbor 
and overhead costs continue to mount up. Another owner may, 
by the aid of a large number of men and a complete transfer 
equipment, unload his vessel in one day. The amount of money 
expended for stevedoring may be greater than in the first case, but 
there is a large saving iu overhead costs and wharf charges. 

A summary of the results of a study of the stevedoring costs for 
a number of vessels, showing time and pay-roll costs, is given in the 

table on page 23. 

The vessel selected was a steel cargo and passenger steamer of 
6,450 dead-weight tons (summer), a total bale capacity of 290,955 
cubic feet, and a total grain capacity of 320,840 cubic feet. Its 
permanent bunkers held 811 tons of coal and it had 4 holds, 5 
hatches, and 6 winches. 

The total daily cost of holding this small vessel in port was 
$2,499.12, or in round numbers $2,500. This is the generally ac- 
cepted figure taken in making rough averages. But, obviously, much 
of this expense is unavoidable. The vessel must discharge its cargo 
and take on coal, supplies, and freight. There is little use in pomt- 
ing out how much it costs to hold a vessel in port if keeping it there 
is essential to its operation. What must be shown is why some of 
this cost is unnecessary and how it can be avoided. This will be 
done for this particular case and then the general principles of 
saving in port expenses will be pointed out. 

It will be seen from this that the total cost of loading vessels 
in 1918 averaged about $7,760. The average time in loading was 
5.37 days. Probably the smallest value that could be placed on a 
day's time of one of these vessels was $2,000, so that at least $10,740 
was consumed in overhead expense during the loading operation. 
That is, the cost of stevedoring was less than the value of the time 
lost. Speeding up would have increased the stevedoring charges in 



WHARF EFFICIENCY AND SHIPPING PROFITS 9 

all probability, but the total cost of loading undoubtedly would have 

been reduced. 

Economies That Could Have Been Effected.-The follow- 
ing summary of the economies that could have been effected by 
more careful work on this selected steamer is taken largely from 
Mr. Cleworth's monograph: 

By More Careful Work , . . j „„« 

1. Wharfage (dockage) charged against inward voyage 

after discharging ceased * 700.oo 

2. Extra labor for discharge ox^ ^r» 

No steam or insufficient steam at hatch • 247 -J" 

Detention to three gangs getting ready and re- ^^^ 

rigging V-""Vi':\ 7Q20 

Allowance for slow working of hoist 7y-«" 

Waiting for lights '^'^^ 

Broken winch \"'i" 

3. Wharfage (dockage) charged against vessel atter 

loading ceased • • • • • ^^'^ 

±, Direct expenses connected with return of vessel to .^ ^ ^ 

port for repairs ^^^f^ 

5. Lack of steam in loading ,^,00 

6. Waiting for steam in bunkering • • • • • • I73-20 

7. Loss of four days' time in returning to port (avoid- ^ 

able by careful bunkering) »ii,925.24 

• These expenses are unusual, but are shown because they actually occurred in 
this case. 

By Faster Work 

In addition to the economies that could have been effected by 
more careful work, large savings could have been made by faster 
work. It is impossible to give these accurately, but an estimate can 
be made. Considering only the most important port expenses that 
would accrue, whether the vessel was being worked or not, we have 
the following as the daily expense of holding the vessel idle in port. 

Overhead charges ^^'^aa^ 

Wharfage (dockage) 3bb.b7 

Vessel supplies "5-32 

• Port pay-roll ..,•••. V^l\ 

Watching ship and cargo and lighting ^^^^ 

Total $3,247.96 

If, therefore, the stevedoring could have been speeded up by 
use of machinery and by other means so that five days were saved, 
the total saving would have been about $16,000. It is scarcely 



I 



lO WHARF MANAGEMENT 

probable that this faster work would have cost more, and it certainly 
would not have cost $i 6,000 more. 

This study is given in detail because it illustrates a number of 
factors that must be considered more fully. It will be seen that 
the most important charges are for wharfage, stevedoring, and over- 
head, and these costs demand more extended treatment. 

Wharf Charges and Dues ^ 

Wharf charges are but a part of terminal charges which have 
been grouped and defined by Mr. C. O. Ruggles as follows : 

Port terminal charges are the charges levied at a port for the 
use of facilities and for various services incident to the movement of 
traffic through a port. In this report these charges have been divided 
into (l) charges against the vessel, (2) charges against the cargo. 

The charges against the vessel have been separated into (a) 
major charges, including pilotage, towage, dockage, loading and dis- 
charging, bunkering, and dunnage ; (b) minor group, consisting of 
harbor master's fees, port warden's fees, and various miscellaneous 

char£res. 

The charges against the cargo arc divided into (a) those 
mainly connected with water operations, including wharf age, lighter- 
age, and floatage, and (b) charges mainly connected with shore 
operations, comprising elevating, switching and belt-line charges, 

and storage. 

The division here made between charges against the vessel and 
charges against the cargo is, of course, not strictly accurate. In the 
last analysis all charges must be borne by the cargo. Stevedoring 
has been included in this report among the charges levied against the 
vessel ; it might as well have been included in charges against the 
cargo. This charge, like others actually paid by the vessel, must be 
included by it in the ocean freight rate imposed upon the cargo. 
Any division of port charges, therefore, is more for convenience m 
analysis than it is to indicate the incidence of charges. 

In attempting this study of port terminal charges, it has been 
necessary to define the terms to be used in the hope that the different 
practices in the various ports might not result in confusion in the 
information furnished. -^ 

3 Taken largely from C. O. Ruggles, "Terminal Charges at United States 
Ports." Report to United States Shipping Board. Government Prmting 
Office, 1919- 



WHARF EFFICIENCY AND SHIPPING PROFITS ii 

The following are the definitions which have been used in seeking 

information: . ., . ^ ^ "p;i„,octp" 

Charges against the Vessel-Ma;or Gr<,«^- Pilotage 

includes all charges for working a ship into and out of a harbor and 
through a channel or passage ; it is based on some unit such as draft 
of vessel or tonnage. Pilotage is sometimes commuted mto a term 

1 iccnse 

"Towage" includes all charges for employment of tugs or tow- 
boats for assisting vessels into and out of the harbor for docking 
and undocking, and for moving vessels and lighters from pier to 

^'""Dockage" includes all charges levied against vessels for the use 
of berthing space, whether for loading, discharging, repairs, or other 
reasons. Use of berth beyond an agreed time allowance is sometimes 
called "penalty dockage." There is included under this head any 

charge for the use of buoys. 

"Loading and discharging cargo" includes stevedoring and all 
forms of mechanical handling, such as cranage, and any miscella- 
neous charges that are incurred in connection with the transfer of 
cargo from ship to pier, or pier to ship, all sorting and stackmg on 
the wharf, including charges for stowing and trimming on vessel. 
Stevedore labor rates also are included under this heading. 

"Bunkering" includes all charges for loading coal into a ship's 
bunkers for its own use, exclusive of the price of coal. 

"Dunnage" covers the expense of preparing a ship for the stow- 
age of cargo. It includes all material necessary for safe and efficient 
stowage, such as boards, coins (extra barrel heads), cordwood, braces, 
and ship-lap, and the cost of installation. , . » • 

Minor Gr^M/^.— "Harbor dues" or "harbor masters fees in- 
clude all fees imposed by the port to cover expenses of admmistra- 
tion. They comprise such charges as those imposed for indicatmg 
anchorage, shifting vessels, clearing wharf, and the like. 

"Port warden's fees" include all charges for surveys held on 
board or on wharf or at any warehouse, storage of cargo, or dam- 
aged goods ; for surveys of hull, sails, spars, and rigging of any 
damaged vessel ; or for valuation or measurement of vessel. 

"Miscellaneous charges" include all fees and charges not other- 
wise classified. Illustration of such fees are those levied for the 
services of a watchman, or a tally clerk, weighing and measurmg 
expenses, running lines for vessels, furnishing tarpaulins, charges 
for water furnished, lighthouse fees, brokerage fees for entering 
goods at the customs, inspection of cargo, fees for making out bills 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



12 

£ ^ A' cr anA rharces for various shipping documents, and ship 
b oS'fees wtXse, is in the chanced freight service. So.e- 
times these fees are commuted into annual payments. 

Claries against the C^rgc^Defimtion of Items rn the Ac- 
.«S^"malge" includes all charges against freight for the use 
of wharves for freight passing over the wharf. These -charges are 
t:^L called "tolls." Preferential assignment of space on a erm 
hasis to shipping agents is included under wharfage, but this should 
ir disdnguUhed f'rom lease of wharves to steamship compan.es. 
which should be included under dockage. 

iehterage" includes all charges for the transportation of goods 
by liS n'a harbor. This charge usually includes the loadmg 
•1 ti discharging out of lighters. Charges made for car floats 

"'^■Ettlg-taiLfcSges for services of both land and 
'"t^ittSTnd belt-line charges" include the charge made by 

^^^^iofagl-'Sstrrrges for freight ~ng on w^^^^^^^ 
beyond a specified time; also all warehouse and other ^h"?*^ J°^ 
temporary 'afe-keeping. including bulk storage °f g-"' ^^J^r ge. 
.he'like. These charges are . be dj.^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
which is a charge apphed to the transporiauuu 

" tm:Xrges of importance, dry-dockage. ^emurraf - d , 

of davs allowed for its loading or discharging, y j 

would' vary according to the size of the ^^f2\f^J:.Z 
service, and various other circumstances. From the character 
T 1< these charges it will be seen that a vessel might enter and 
Tar orr^a^/tLes without occasion for either of^^em b.ng 
paid. W araya^e U - ^^^^ZZ:ZSit. 
T\?d™:cO ii'fi-rn this study is that which would 
K^nin for cartage between piers, between piers and storage ware- 
houses betwee?pLs and raiLay terminals and vice versa. In cases 
twhkh information has been furnished differentiation has not been 
Lde between the service connected with the coordmat.on of rail and 
water carriers and that of local deliveries. 

In addition to the Federal regulation of quarantine, there are 






'I 

f 



I- 



WHARF EFFICIENCY AND SHIPPING PROFITS 13 

certain local health or quarantine fees for sanitary inspection and 
fumigation services, but the information furnished on these charges 
was so unsatisfactory that in view of their minor importance they 
have been omitted. 

Definitions Vary at Different Ports. — Examination of the data 
in Part II of this report will indicate that the definitions of port 
charges here given do not obtain at all ports. Indeed, the conspicu* 
ous lack of any standardization of terms in this field is one indication 
of the fact that port charges have not received the consideration to 
which they are entitled. A few concrete examples will indicate the 
variety of usage employed. At New York and Philadelphia the 
term "dockage" is rarely used. Although charges are made against 
the vessel at these ports, it is called "wharfage." As has been seen, 
wharfage has been defined in this report as a charge against the 
cargo. Therefore, what is usually referred to in New York and 
Philadelphia as wharfage is called dockage in this report. At San 
Francisco, until recently, wharfage was used to designate the charge 
made for cargo remaining on the wharf after a specified time. In 
an amendment to the harbor rules, regulations, and rates of that port, 
effective September 1, 1917, the board of State harbor commissioners 
substituted the term "demurrage" for "wharfage." At Seattle the 
charge made for leaving cargo on the wharf beyond a prescribed time 
is called "wharf demurrage"; at New Orleans such a charge is in 
some instances called demurrage. This is confusing. The term 
demurrage properly applies to the detention of a ship or vehicle. In 
this report the charge for leaving cargo on a wharf after a prescribed 
time is called storage. Possibly a new term, such as "penalty 
wharfage," should be given to this charge, to distinguish it from 
storage in warehouses. 

Of these various terminal charges, those for wharf service are 
especially important because they are relatively large and because 
they "are used for purposes of what may be called traffic strategy 
or port strategy, being collected as a separate charge for a special 
service, or absorbed in the freight rate, or waived, as the exigencies 
of the port or the owners of the terminal facilities, especially of rail- 
road owners, may require." 

Difference between Dockage and Wharfage. — The charges for 
wharf service consist of "dockage" and "wharfage," which Ruggles 
distinguishes from each other as follows : 

Dockage is a per diem charge proportioned to the space occupied 



14 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



by the ship alongside the pier or wharf; while wharfage is propor- 
tioned to the quantity of goods passing over the wharf to or from 
the vessel. Generally speaking, these are alternative modes of pay- 
ment, the owner relying on one form or the other for his revenue. 
It is not usual to charge the vessel for occupying a berth while load- 
ing or discharging cargo against which wharfage is charged. Dock- 
age may be charged against such a vessel for occupying the berth for 
an unreasonable length of time, or against a vessel at berth for any 
purpose other than receiving or discharging cargo. This is the 
common practice, but in some cases, especially in ports where termi- 
nals are publicly owned and publicly operated, both charges, and 
indeed some additional charges, are collected. 

Difference in Application of Charges. — The difference in methods 
of applying these charges may be shown by comparing the practice 
at New Orleans with that at New York. 

At New Orleans the wharves owned and operated by the public 
are the ones chiefly used by vessels engaged in foreign and coastwise 
trade. The total gross tonnage of the ocean vessels docking at the 
public wharves in 1916 was 4,510,000 out of a total of 5,792,000 
arriving at the port. The State secures its wharf revenue from five 
forms of charge: (1) from dockage, based on gross tonnage and 
the length of time the berth is occupied, imposed on all seagoing 
vessels ; (2) from wharfage, locally called tollage or tolls, imposed 
since November, 1915, but not before, on all foreign and coastwise 
traffic at a flat rate of 5 cents per ton of 2,000 pounds; (3) from 
sheddage, a charge for the use of piers provided with sheds, at the 
rate of 1^ cents per gross registered ton for the first 21 days and 
^ cent for the next 3 days. It will be seen, therefore, that this is 
essentially a dockage charge for the use of a particular kind of 
wharf. (4) A fourth form of charge is made for preferential assign- 
ments of wharves to water carriers for which "assignment rental" 
is collected at the rate of 3 cents per square foot per annum for wharf 
space occupied. As the charge indicates, it entitles the ship only to a 
preferential use, not to absolute control of the wharf or part thereof 
assigned. This charge is also of the nature of a dockage charge, but 
is not in lieu of it or of any other charge. (5) Still another form 
of charge is the license, levied against river craft of various kinds. 
It is graded according to the size and character of vessel and ranges 
from $36 to $ 1 20 per year. 

Pier Rent. — At New York the revenue of the public wharves is 
derived from "rent" and from "wharfage" (properly "dockage"), 



WHARF EFFICIENCY AND SHIPPING PROFITS 



15 



\^ 



rent making up by far the larger amount. When the city rents a 
pier it surrenders all right to make any charges other than the 
rent itself, and thus there is a sharp contrast to the situation at New 
Orleans. The lessee may make any charges that he prefers, and in 
almost all cases the charge is a dockage charge proportioned to ton- 
nage and time at berth. 

It will be seen from this one illustration that it is difficult to com- 
pare wharf charges. The problem is further complicated by the 
practice at piers owned and operated by railroads. 

In general it may be said that the railroads do not make a dock- 
age charge against a vessel while it is loading or discharging cargo 
subject to wharfage. The railroad terminal tariffs have a much 
larger number of specific commodity rates than is usual at public 
piers, and what is more confusing, the wharfage charge is usually 
combined with a handling or a storage charge and often with both. 
But the greatest confusion is due to the fact that the charge is 
collected as against some traffic and is waived with respect to 
other traffic. This applies to wharfage, the charge against the cargo 
rather than to dockage. Without attempting to go into the history 
of the railroad practice of absorbing the wharfage charge it may 
be said that it has been adopted in part to protect the business of 
the port and in part to protect the traffic of the roads. The longer the 
haul a road has the better able it is to treat the terminal as part of 
the railroad and make no separate charge for its use, and the more 
likely it is, therefore, to absorb the wharfage. At Boston, the roads 
will absorb a rather high wharfage charge in a switching rate. At 
Baltimore the Pennsylvania absorbs it if it gets a line haul, while 
the Baltimore & Ohio does so only when it earns a line-haul revenue 
of a stipulated, though small, amount. At New York and Philadel- 
phia there is no wharfage charge at the railroad piers, though in the 
case of New York vessels rarely dock at the railroad piers. At New 
York vessels are subject to heavy dockage or rentals at the city piers 
on the Manhattan side. 

Competition between the rail carriers is another factor determin- 
ing whether a separate charge is made against traffic using a railroad 
water terminal. The method of absorption employed generally at 
the South Atlantic ports and at Mobile illustrates the effect on rail- 
road policy, both of competition and of distance. Traffic from be- 
yond a certain defined territory, roughly, south of the Ohio and east 
of the Mississippi, pays no wharfage, while traffic originating at or 



i6 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



I i 



ii 



destined to points within that territory does pay it, unless such 
points are competitive. The Galveston Bay roads absorb wharfage 
at Galveston and Texas City on all commodities, with a few excep- 
tions of traffic originating at or destined to points outside of Texas, 
while Texas traffic pays the charge in addition to the rail rate. The 
rule at Seattle is constructed on the same general plan, but it in- 
troduces another condition-the origin or destination of traffic at 
the water end of the movement. 

It should be pointed out that the railroads also absorb the 
wharfage charge against traffic passing over public piers as well 
as their own. When in 1915 New Orleans was in need of more 
revenue from its wharves it left untouched its old charges against 
the vessel and added a low flat rate on freight, fully expecting that 
Uie railroads would absorb it, and this the railroads promptly did. 
The transcontinental lines follow a general policy of absorbing the 
California State "tolls" or wharfage, though they do not absorb on 
all traffic. At the present time (December, 1918) the proposal is 
being discussed at San Francisco to reduce greatly, if not to elimi- 
nate all charges against vessels in the hope of attracting more vessels 
to the port and to make good the loss of revenue by increasing the 
wharfage charge with the expectation, no doubt, that the railroads 
will absorb It thus giving San Francisco what would amount to a 
lower railroad rate. 

It will readily be seen that the outcome of this policy of absorbing 
the wharfage on some traffic and not on other is to introduce an 
element of discrimination in the interest of the carrier or of the 
port, and to render it well-nigh impossible accurately to compare 
the charge either as a measure of service or as a burden of 
commerce. 

Although it is impossible, therefore, to compare wharf charges, 
there are available several publications which can be used to obtain 
the charge made at any one port. The points that we want to make 
here are that these charges are relatively large and that they vary 
between wide limits. Since they vary, it is possible for the shipowner 
to make large economies by studying the situation carefully and using 
those wharves or ports at which he can obtain the most favorable 
rates. Since they are large and are generally based on time at 
berth, it is essential that the time of the vessel in port be reduced to 
the lowest possible minimum. Methods of reducing this time will be 
considered later. 



WHARF EFFICIENCY AND SHIPPING PROFITS 17 

Cost of Stevedoring 

The actual cost of handling cargo varies with a great many 
factors, the most important being the harbor facilities, the kind of 
cargo, the type of vessel, and the wages and efficiency of the long- 
shoremen. The cost is relatively low if the harbor and transfer 
equipment is adequate, if the cargo can be handled in bulk, and if the 
wages are low; and it is high if the cargo must be handled by many 
highly paid and inefficient laborers at a port not equipped with 
modern conveniences. 

Even under the most favorable conditions the cost of stevedoring 
is large as compared with other direct operating expenses of the 
vessel. From the few studies that have been made on this subject 
it would appear that stevedoring accounts for 25 to 35 per cent of 
the total direct operating expenses, which include wages, fuel, repairs 
and maintenance, port charges, agency fees, subsistence, stores and 
supplies, management, loading and discharging, but do not include 
insurance, interest, and depreciation. 

It is a common saying that it costs more to move a barrel 
of oil over a New York pier and place it in a vessel than it does 
to carry the barrel from New York to London, and yet some people 
argue that New York is one of the best equipped ports in the 
world. Under the most unfavorable conditions — sometimes encoun- 
tered at the largest ports, such as at New York — the cost of handling 
cargo becomes enormous. 

Conditions differ so greatly that it is impossible to make any 
general statement showing the costs to be expected. Nor are there 
available figures to show the cost of handling even one type of 
cargo at different ports of the world, although shipping and port 
guides give some indication of the stevedore rates. We can, how- 
ever, choose some illustrations to indicate the general trend of costs 
in Philadelphia and New York. 

Stevedore Rates at Philadelphia. — The statement following 
gives the contract stevedore rates of Murphy, Cook & Company, 
one of the largest stevedoring firms in Philadelphia. Most of the 
important commodities handled by this firm, with the rate on each, 
are listed. It will be noted that the rate on general cargo is the same 
for both loading and discharging ($1.10 per ton, weight or measure- 
ment). It would seem perhaps that the cost of loading would be 



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WHARF MANAGEMENT 



V 



Note.— The foregoing rates are based on the usual custom of Phil- 
adelphia delivery, and any expenses incurred for trucking, piling cargo 
etc., on the dock to be paid for by the ship. (Over six (6) men to each 
gang on the dock.) 

In event of our discharging or loading any vessels at lower rates than 
those named, we agree to give you the benefit of such reduction, and in 
case of increased cost of labor, owners to pay such increase. 

We agree to give the ships the best possible dispatch and attention. 
Cargo in peaks, bridges, tanks, poops, lazarets, by day's work. 

We are covered by insurance against accidents which may occur to 
our men while employed by us to comply with the Workmen's Com- 
pensation Act ,n the State of Pennsylvania, for which an additional five 
per cent will be charged. 

Steamships to furnish all necessary steam, winches, runners, and 
slings for working the cargo. The stevedores furnishing the men to 
work at the winches, the ship paying the prevailing rates for the com- 
modity handled for each man so furnished. Should steamers' winches 
not be available, owners to pay the cost of hoisting charges. 

bhould men be employed by the ship to assist in any work, such men 
to be paid the prevailing rates for the commodities handled. 

Labor Rates 



General cargo 
Foremen — do 
Oil — in city 
Foremen — do 

Grain 

Foremen — do 



Day Work Overtime 



Per hour 



$ .85 

1.35 
I. GO 

1.50 

.95 
1.45 



Per hour 



$1.30 
2.05 
1.50 
2.25 
1.40 
2.15 



Meal Hour 


Overtime 


Meal Hour 


per hour 


per hour 


per hour 


$1.70 


$ .50 


$.85 


2.70 


.70 


1.35 


2.00 


.55 


1.00 


3.00 


.75 


I. so 


1.90 


.50 


.95 


2.90 


.70 


1.4!) 



Oil— Point Breeze and Gibsons Point 
$11.50 per day or one-half day. 

$15.50 per day or one-half day or night or one-half night overtime. 
It)2.30 per hour meal hour. 

Foremen 

$15.00 per day or one-half day. 

^^f^ ^^'u^^ °' Tt^^^^ ^^^ °' "^Sht or one-half night overtime. 
$3.00 per hour meal hour. "vcumic. 

Explosives 

$12.50 per day or one-half day. 

$16.00 per day or one-half day or night or one-half night overtime. 
;})2.5o per hour meal hour. 

Overtime, $1.00 per hour; $2.50 per hour meal hour. 
Foremen 

$18.00 per day or one-half day. 

%lTo 1:1 htrraltur. ''' ^^ "^'^'^ ^ ^^"^^^^ ^^^'^ ---. 
Overtime, $1.50 per hour; $3.50 per hour meal hour. 



^ 



WHARF EFFICIENCY AND SHIPPING PROFITS 21 

The basic day is from 8 a. m. till 5 p. m. (8 hours). All other time is 
OVERTIME, and the rate for all labor for overtime is governed by the 
National Adjustment Commission. 

This agreement to commence on , and to remain in force until 

, 19—. 

Murphy, Cook & Co. 

Witness: 



We hereby accept the above offer of Messrs. Murphy, Cook & 
Company, to do the stevedoring work (except when bound by charter) 
of all steamers under our management, and subject to all conditions 
named in this contract. 

Witness : 



Dated at 



-, this day of 



19—. 



the larger because it involves stowing in the hold. Perhaps the 
stevedore does make a larger profit on the unloading, but it must 
be remembered that breaking out of cargo is almost as difficult as the 
stowing, particularly as the goods must be raised. 

The rates vary between wide limits, according to the character of 
the cargo. The lowest loading rate ($1.10 per ton) is given to those 
articles most easily handled because of their method of packing, 
including bagged materials, meats, oil cake, general cargo, and case 
oil. The highest rates are on those that are very dangerous (dyna- 
mite, $5.02 per ton) and those that require special machinery and a 
large number of men (locomotives $4.80 per ton). The lowest dis- 
charging rates are quoted on East Indian cargoes, ore, china clay, 
and chalk. The East Indian cargoes consist of goods that can be 
easily and roughly handled, while ore, china clay, and chalk can 
be discharged into lighters by use of clamshell buckets. The highest 
rate is on steel or iron scrap, the discharge of which requires many 
men and may require special equipment. 

In almost all cases these rates must be considerably increased 
to cover the "extras," or charges for extra labor and equipment, 
which may amount to a large percentage of the total bill. But. on 
the other hand, the rates include a profit for the stevedore and are 
higher than the actual cost. It is probable, therefore, that the cost 
of the same operations to a steamship company doing its own steve- 
doring is not greatly different. 



I 



22 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



Satisfactory Statistics Lacking. — Satisfactory statistics on the 
subject of stevedoring costs are lacking, even Tor the port of New 
York, to which so much attention has been paid, although the New 
York and New Jersey Harbors Facilities Commission has made an 
investigation of this matter which became available in April, 1921. 

Shipping Board Calculations. — Perhaps the best study is that 
made by the Ports Facilities Commission of the United States Ship- 
ping Board, shown in the table on the following page. The cost 
is made up of four items : stevedoring, tallying and clerking, watch- 
ing, and dunnage, and is shown for two periods — the fall of 1913 
and the fall of 1918. 

Most of the vessels carried general cargo. The striking disclo- 
sures made by this table are: (1) the high cost of loading in 1918, 
(2) the large increase in costs since 1913, and (3) the difference of 
56.7 cents between the average costs of loading and unloading in 
1918. If the figures show the true conditions, as they were designed 
to do, the cost of loading in New York in 1918 was more than $1 
greater than the contract stevedore prices in Philadelphia a year 
later, after further increases in longshoremen's wages. The cost was 
less on the average for coastwise vessels than for deep-sea vessels, 
and there were large differences between the costs of different 
companies. 

The fact that the cost of unloading was considerably less than 
the loading cost in 1918, although the two were almost equal in 
1913, is to be partly explained by the smaller percentage of general 
cargo vessels to be unloaded in 1918. But it is probably true that 
unloading costs at most modern ports and with most cargoes are 
less than loading costs. 

It will be seen from the table on page 65 that the wages of 
longshoremen in the period, August, 1918, to January 1, 1919, at 
which time this study was made, were 50 cents and 65 cents an hour, 
whereas in January, 1920, they were 80 cents an hour. The investi- 
gation therefore falls far short of representing the cost of stevedoring 
in New York at the present time. The costs at other ports, even 
for 1918, are not available, but some hint of them is contained in 
the level of longshoremen's wages, shown in the table referred to 
above. 



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WHARF EFFICIENCY AND SHIPPING PROFITS 23 






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24 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

Methods of Reducing Terminal Costs and Time in Port 

It has been pointed out that a saving of several thousand dollars 
can be made in port overhead expenses for each day eliminated from 
the time spent in port and that wharf charges can be reduced 
several hundred dollars for each day eliminated. The economies 
resulting from faster stevedoring are not so apparent, but unques- 
tionably quicker stevedoring means cheaper stevedoring, except in 
those cases where speed is made by working overtime at higher 
costs. If greater speed is the result of mechanical appliances or 
more efficient work, the total cost is lowered. These three major 
items in port expense depend, therefore, upon the time in port, and 
it becomes necessary to inquire into the means that may be taken to 
reduce this time. Some of the means will be considered in more 
detail in future chapters, especially in those on transfer, but it is 
best to summarize them here. 

If the shipowner can secure from these suggestions a hint that 
will enable him to eliminate one day in port, this book will have 
served its purpose. The lowest freight rates in the world are those 
of the Great Lakes, where time in port has been reduced to such a 
point that the vessels can make large earnings in spite of high wages, 
low freight rates, and an eight months' operating season. If the 
deep-sea American merchant marine is to prosper in similar fashion, 
the turn-around of the individual vessels must de decreased. De- 
crease will not come immediately as a result of greater speed of the 
vessel, for that involves increased costs, but it must come as a result 
of the elimination of some of the time in port. In September, 1919, 
the average time spent by the United States Shipping Board vessels 
in London was 40.4 days, and this had been reduced to 29.6 days in 
November, partly as a result of the activity of the Board's agents. A 
reduction of over 10 days in port time cannot be expected in many 
instances, but smaller reductions can be made by the adoption on 
the part of the several interested agencies of one or more of the 
following suggestions : 

Quick dispatch is attained by maximum speed in loading and dis- 
charging. Obvious as this may sound, there is a great deal to it, 
because the actual loading or unloading of the vessel is concerned 
with processes very remote from the ship's side. There are many 
factors involved in addition to the mere speed of the hook between 









WHARF EFFICIENCY AND SHIPPING PROFITS 25 

hatch and wharf. Some of the factors of rapid loading and discharg- 
ing should be carefully considered. 

Formulation of the loading plan well in advance is the foundation 
for quick dispatch. If the larger part of the freight to go into the 
vessel has been booked and the distribution of the same in the ship 
carefully calculated well in advance of the time when the ship is 
to load, it is possible to feed the cargo into the ship in a steady 
stream in the order in which it should come. If cargo can move 
quickly without interference and without congestion on the pier or 
in the hold there will be saved all those vexatious delays due either 
to congestion or to the failure of the goods to arrive on time. 

Prompt delivery is important in loading or unloading the vessel. 
Prompt delivery while loading is necessary to avoid delays. As the 
size of ships has grown much more rapidly than the wharf capaci- 
ties, it is essential that delivery be taken of cargo discharged from the 
ship as promptly as possible in order to remove the same from the 
wharves and not to congest the wharf area for the further discharge 
of freight from the vessel. Rapid transfer is dependent very largely 
upon the dispatch with which freight arrives or is taken away. 

Adequate machinery is of the greatest importance. Probably 
more attention is given to this subject than to any phase of port 
development. The contestants in favor of the ship winch and 
cargo masts as against the adherents of the electric crane are con- 
stantly before the public with their various arguments. The differ- 
ence between the two, so long as the movement is positive and rapid — 
positive because it handles the draft with dispatch, and rapid be- 
cause of the maximum frequency of the cycles possible — still leaves 
considerable room for discussion as to the relative merits. The 
question of transfer machinery undoubtedly is important. There is 
much room for improvement and for new designs, particularly 
special designs for the continuous motion of handling freight of a 
uniform size and weight. However, the main delays occur some 
distance away from the picking-up point. Nevertheless, in the 
case of large packages weighing more than a ton each, adequate 
derricks either on the wharf or afloat are absolutely essential to 
quick dispatch. For instance, at Baltimore at the beginning of the 
World War, it took more than an hour to load a crated army truck 
from the wharf side. After the institution of a lighterage and float- 
ing derrick system, with a derrick sufficiently powerful to lift easily 



tut »i jinarritufwii 



26 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



a crated 6-ton truck, the loading time for these trucks was reduced 
to less than fifteen minutes. Even such a large package as a loco- 
motive completely assembled can be handled with comparative ease 
with the proper machinery. 

Avoiding congestion is more important than the relative differ- 
ence in machinery, as various types of transfer machinery have been 
well developed to date. Congestion in and about our ports from 
the area immediately about the ship, both wharf and slip, and into 
the classification yards of the railroads is the main cause of delay, 
high cost of loading, and of slow turn-around. There are numerous 
points where this congestion can be avoided and must be avoided 
in our future port development if our merchant marine is to prosper. 

Avoiding congestion at the pic king-up point or deposit point oppo- 
site the ship's hatchway is important. If in discharging a vessel a 
draft must "hang" because the draft preceding it has not been re- 
moved from the point of deposit, this time is lost. One of the first 
rules in handling cargo is not to let the draft hang. In order to 
avoid this it is necessary to have as large a point of deposit as possi- 
ble. One advantage of the crane over the cargo mast and tackle is 
the greater area on which goods may be set down upon the wharf. 

The size of the wharf deck is of even greater importance. Much 
of the congestion at New York is due to the fact that the piers 
were built for small ships many years ago. The large ships of 
to-day can discharge upon the average old pier far more cargo than 
it can hold, even if the goods are tiered to its shed roof-stringers. 
Obviously, when the cargo is being worked and delivery is being 
made, either to the ship or to the consignee, it is quite impossible to 
pile to full height and to leave only a few aisles. There are so 
many different marks that the goods will become mixed unless there 
is a sufficient area to pile consignments separately and to leave large 
aisles between the piles. If the aisle space is encroached upon there 
is insufficient room for the longshoremen to work; every one inter- 
feres with every one else, and the piled goods and the goods on the 
hand trucks are constantly in collision. Future wharves must have 
a very much greater area — several times the area of the average New 
York pier. In getting along with what limited wharf space we have, 
careful planning to secure prompt delivery of goods as wanted for 
stowing is necessary. 

Working all the hatches is essential to quick dispatch. This 



WHARF EFFICIENCY AND SHIPPING PROFITS 27 

again is dependent upon adequate machinery and adequate deck 
area of the wharf. With all four or five hatches being loaded simul- 
taneously the confusion on the wharf is increased. Unless there is 
plenty of room and, in addition, adequate machinery for handling, 
tiering, trucking, etc., it is an extremely difficult matter to keep all 
hatches busy, and costly delays constantly occur. 

Both sides of the ship should be worked, wherever possible, at 
the same time. In particular, the small packages should be coming 
aboard from the wharf side, while lighters should be loading the 
heavy packages and such consignments as grain in bulk and coal 
from the water side. If "breasted off," the ship can be bunkered from 
both sides at the same time. 

The design of the wharf and its proper relation to rails, drays, 
warehouses, lighters, etc., is necessary to the intensive working of 
the ship. From what has been said it is obvious that a modern wharf 
must be designed with a very much greater area than we have been 
accustomed to in the past. At the same time, with the growth of 
ships, particularly their increased beam, it is necessary to make the 
water area alongside the wharf more ample. This is especially true 
at New York, where the slips between the piers are as narrow in pro- 
portion as the piers themselves and similarly congested. This 
design at New York is due not to desirability of the plan, but to 
the fact that the city had riparian rights to land under water and 
to the water front at the ends of the streets. Therefore, the piers 
correspond in width to the width of the streets and the slips to the 
width of the city blocks. When people to-day declare that the New 
York piers are properly designed and new piers should be built like 
them it only goes to prove that man is far more a creature of habit 
than of imagination. New York piers never were designed for 
efficiency. They were built to fit certain legal and physical condi- 
tions. With the growth in the size of the steamer and the growth 
in the size of the lighter that is serving the steamer from the water 
side, the slips to-day are hopelessly congested. This congestion in 
many cases reduces the capacity of each slip from two vessels to one, 
it being impossible to load vessels at both sides of the slip. There- 
fore, ample room for the lighters in the slip is just as important as 
ample deck room on the wharf or pier. It has been estimated that 
the deck area, either single-floor or double-deck tier, should be-»equal 
to ten times the number of square feet of cargo capacity of the 



28 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



largest vessel using that wharf.* Likewise, the width of the slip 
should be four times the beam of the largest vessel using the slip. 
Where these conditions are not found the wharf superintendent and 
his staff are hard put to overcome the difficulty. 

In addition to the wharf design as to area and to its ability to 
stand up and carry the load put upon it, there are other factors 
affecting the degree of congestion. Wherever there is a harboT'belt 
railway connecting with the main trunk lines using the wharf, pro- 
vision must be made for the freight cars to be brought within con- 
venient distance from the ship. At the port of New York no such 
lines exist, and railroad cars are not brought alongside the wharf to 
load the ship. Their contents are unloaded, put upon lighters, and 
towed to the pier or the ship. The narrow piers receive a lighter 
on one side to unload on to the wharf. In all cases where the freight 
is not loaded overside from lighters it is trucked across the pier and 
loaded into the ship. So, at least, is the theoretical system of 
lighters and narrow piers. It must be remembered also that only a 
portion of the freight can be loaded directly from lighters into the 
hold. Freight should be spread out and sorted in order to be loaded 
properly and, to a large measure, should also be assembled in advance 
of the loading of the vessel. 

Warehouses in their relation to the wharf have undergone an 
evolution in the United States in the last two or three years. A 
great deal of the congestion on the wharf can be avoided by plan- 
ning the warehouses within electric trailer-truck 'service distance. 
This has been well accomplished at the new quartermasters' supply 
bases at several of our ports. By being able to hold freight in ware- 
houses adjacent to the piers, it is possible to clear the piers almost 
immediately, or to marshal the cargo and bring it to the ship's side 
in a regular and steady flow according to the cargo plan. 

Skilled personnel is of the greatest possible importance in all of 
this work. This includes skilled personnel from the pier superin- 
tendent to the longshoremen. The skill of all of these persons 
requires practice and experience ; it also requires close study. Unless 
an individual has great ability and a type of mind that will cause 
him to work things out for himself, experience and practice alone 
will not make of him a chief stevedore or a wharf superintendent. 



*R. S. MacElwee, Ports and Terminal Facilities. 
Co., 1 91 8. 



McGraw-Hill Book 



••■•I 

m 



WHARF EFFICIENCY AND SHIPPING PROFITS 29 

The successful man is the one who knows more than the mere rou- 
tine of his vocation. He must know the reasons for his duties and 
their relation to the whole. Then, with imagination he can make 
constructive suggestions and direct others. It is a very difficult 
task with which we are confronted in this volume. The prime 
object is to bring between two covers the best experience of many 
others in such a form that the years of apprenticeship necessary to 
acquire skill and experience may be shortened and methods of thought 
upon the prime reasons for doing things may be developed in the 
ambitious young wharfinger. Only through training a personnel, 
skilled in understanding the problems involved and in ability to 
carry on, can we hope to make our American merchant marine a 
financially profitable business enterprise. Unless it is, its failure is 
unavoidable. 

Increased Profits by Skillful Stowing 

Loading to Maximum Capacity. — To make the greatest 
profits during a voyage a ship must be loaded "full and down to her 
marks." The vessel must carry both her maximum dead-weight 
capacity and her maximum cubic capacity. If a ship is loaded 
entirely with pig iron it will be lowered to its marks and still will be 
partly empty. If it be loaded with cotton, it will be full, but will 
be high out of the water. As most freight contracts read that freight 
is paid "by weight or measure at ship's option," one will see that the 
company is charging a certain price per ton by weight if the goods 
are heavy, and a certain amount per 40 cubic feet, that is, by meas- 
urement, if the goods are light. Loading to maximum weight and 
volume, therefore, is an important factor. Of course, the chief 
stevedore must take his freight as it comes. It is much easier for 
him to load four vessels at one time than to load one, because he has 
a greater choice in the shifting of his cargo according to its nature. 
However, through cooperation between the men on the wharf and 
the freight agent who books the cargo, and through planning the 
enfreightment in advance, a great deal may be done "to have her 
full and down to her marks." 

Kinds of Tonnage. — The various types of tonnage must be 
clearly in mind, and they may be reviewed here as an aid to further 
progress in this volume. The measurement cargo ton of 40 cubic 



30 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 







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WHARF EFFICIENCY AND SHIPPING PROFITS 31 

feet is probably based upon wheat, as a ton of this commodity occu- 
pies and requires 40 cubic feet of space. The accompanying table 
shows the stowage factors of some important commodities, that is, 
the space occupied by a long ton of the commodities as they stow 
in a ship. 

There are five kinds of tonnage in use in the shipping business. 
They are dead-weight tonnage, cargo tonnage, gross, net, and dis- 
placement tonnages. 

1. Dead-weight tonnage expresses the number of tons of 2,240 
pounds that a vessel can transport of cargo, stores, and bunker fuel. 
It is the difference between the number of tons of water a vessel 
displaces "light" and the number of tons it displaces when sub- 
merged to the "load water line." Dead-weight tonnage is used 
interchangeably with dead-weight carrying capacity. A vessel's 
capacity for weight cargo is less than its total dead-weight tonnage. 

2. Cargo tonnage is either "weight" or "measurement." The 
weight ton in the United States and in British countries is the 
English long or gross ton of 2,240 pounds. In France and other 
countries using the metric system a weight ton is 2,204.6 pounds. 
A "measurement" ton is usually 40 cubic feet or 1.133 cubic meters, 
but in some instances a larger number of cubic feet is taken for a 
ton. Most ocean package freight is taken at weight or measurement 
(W/M), ship's option. 

3. Gross tonnage applies to vessels, not to cargo. It is deter- 
mined by dividing by 100 the contents, in cubic feet, of the vessel's 
closed-in spaces. A vessel ton is 100 cubic feet. The register of a 
vessel states both gross and net tonnage. 

4. Net tonnage is a vessel's gross tonnage minus deductions of 
space occupied by accommodations for crew, by machinery for 
navigation, by the engine room and fuel. A vessel's net tonnage 
expresses the space available for the accommodation of passengers 
and the stowage of cargo. A ton of cargo, in most instances, occu- 
pies less than 100 cubic feet; hence, the vessel's cargo tonnage may 
exceed its net tonnage and, indeed, the tonnage of cargo carried is 
usually greater than the gross tonnage. 

5. Displacement of a vessel is the weight, in tons of 2,240 
pounds, of the vessel and its contents. Displacement "light" is the 
weight of the vessel without stores, bunker fuel, or cargo. Displace- 
ment "loaded" is the weight of the vessel, plus cargo, fuel, and stores. 



I 



33 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

For a modern freight steamer the following relative tonnage 
figures would ordinarily be approximately correct : 



Net tonnage (B. R. T. net) 

Gross tonnage (B. R. T. gr.) . .... ... . • • • 

Dead-weight carrying capacity (D. W. 1.) 
Displacement loaded, about (T. D.) 



4,000 

6,000 

10,000 

13.350 



A vessel's registered tonnage, whether gross or net, is practi- 
cally the same under the American rules and the British rules. 
When measured according to the Panama or Suez tonnage rules 
most vessels have larger gross and net tonnages than when measured 
by British or American national rules.^ 

Increased Profits through Prevention of Damage 

Increased profits are possible through the prevention of damage. 
Not alone will profits be increased by economy through skillful 
stowing, or through quick dispatch in port, but also through skillful 
loading of the vessel to prevent loss by damage to the ship, by 
damage to the cargo, by injuries to the crew, and by realizing a 
minimum insurance rate. Carelessness or lack of skill in loading 
may lead to claims for damages on the part of the shipper, or may 
even endanger the very existence of the ship itself. 

Prevention of Damage to the Ship or Injury to Crew.— 
Failure to place the cargo properly may result in strain or injury to 
the vessel, or perhaps in total loss. If the weight is too low the 
ship will roll badly; if too high it may capsize; if distributed 
unevenly along the keel the vessel will be out of trim ; and if there 
is excessive weight on one side a list will be given. Unless the cargo 
is well secured, shifting will occur, with resultant strain and break- 
age. Moreover, some cargo, because of its very character, will injure 
the vessel. Acids will corrode metal parts, oils will discolor wood- 
work and make it inflammable, fertilizers will leave obnoxious odors, 
and other kinds of goods will have equally serious effects. 

A large number of vessels are wrecked each year because of poor 
stowage and dangerous cargoes. Members of the crew are injured 
or lost for the same reasons. More careful work would result in the 
saving of many lives and thousands of dollars. 

"Prepared for the United States Shipping Board by Dr. Emory R. 
Johnson. 



1 



WHARF EFFICIENCY AND SHIPPING PROFITS 33 

Prevention of Damage to the Cargo.— Cargo should be pro- 
tected against various sources of damage, such as moisture, heat, 
vermin, chafe, and theft. The profits of a voyage may be absorbed 
by damage claims, unless stowage is carefully carried out. Losses 
most frequently fall upon the insurance underwriters, but the ship- 
owner is liable if negligence is shown. It is probable that a larger 
percentage of cargo has been damaged in transit during the last few 
years than ever before. Shipowners have grown careless and long- 
shoremen doubly careless. Remedial measures require concerted and 

forceful action. 

Saving through Reduced Insurance Rates and Deprecia- 
tion Charges.— The shipowner does not have to bear the high in- 
surance rates against damage or theft of cargo, but a large portion of 
his gross income is paid for insurance and depreciation on his vessel. 
The insurance charges will be reduced for him if he can place his 
vessel in a higher class or if the whole level of rates is lowered. The 
level will be lowered only as losses become less frequent. Each 
shipowner therefore plays a part in fixing his own rate, even though 
he often feels that he has no hand in the matter. There is a closer 
relation between his action and the depreciation rate. 

Of course, depreciation depends upon other factors than stowage, 
but it is evident that careless stowage leads to rapid depreciation and 
therefore to high depreciation charges. Care in stowage will, in 
the long run, result in great economy. 

This introductory summary of factors entering into the respon- 
sibility of the wharf superintendent and his staff in making a steam- 
ship company a losing or a profitable business enterprise should be 
kept firmly in mind throughout the following pages. 



i. 






I 



CHAPTER II 

FROM LAND TO WATER CARRIER* 
Loading and Unloading 

The wharf superintendent, his staff, and his equipment exist to 
the end that ships may be loaded and unloaded ; they must be loaded 
from the land and must discharge cargo to the land. 

Before passing to the details of the problem it will be well to 
review in a general way the various types of cargo and carrier which 
the wharf must accommodate. 

Movement of Cargo by Lighters.— In ports where there is 
insufficient depth of water at the wharves or along the shore the 
freight must be moved between ship and shore by means of other 
vessels. At many of the ports in the world the larger vessels cannot 
come up to the shore at all and must remain anchored "in stream" if 
the port is a river port, or in the open roadstead of the bay. This is 
true at Shanghai, for instance, where the chests of tea are loaded 
from the shore into a small junk that can come up to the shallow- 
water wharves. The junk goes out to the ship, which is anchored 
down the river, and the tea is loaded from the junk overside into the 
seagoing ship in the open roadstead. 

A notable example of lighterage service in loading and unloading 
ships and bringing the cargo to and from the ship and the shore is to 
be found on the west coast of South America. In most of the west- 
coast ports the ships anchor in the open roadstead and discharge 
their freight onto lighters. The difficulties of building permanent 
wharves are very great and would cost more than the volume of the 
traffic could bear. It is more economical to lighter a small volume 
of freight per annum than to expend large sums in permanent works. 

Where there is a sufficient volume of freight to justify the capital 
investment in constructing permanent and solid landing places this 
is done. Therefore, by necessity, lighters may be used to "lighten" 



* By R. S. MacElwee. 



34 



FROM LAND TO WATER CARRIER 35 

a ship or, in the case of a small movement of cargo which will not 
make it pay to build expensive facilities, the lighter is used by choice. 
Grain.— The smaller vessels or lighters may be used by preference 
in well-equipped harbors. For instance, it is usually more economical 
to move a part of a cargo of grain to a ship taking on or discharging 
miscellaneous freight at a wharf than it is to move the ship to the 
grain elevator. Therefore, in all great harbors where there is a 
considerable movement of grain, there are to be found high-power 
pneumatic or other mechanical floating grain elevators that come 
alongside the ship to discharge or load grain from lighters or barges. 
Bunker Coa/.— Where a collier is loading a full cargo of coal, 
it is more economical to bring the coal to the ship for bunkering 
purposes than it is to have the ship go to the coal pile. 

Heavy Articles.— V try heavy articles are loaded overside from 
lighters by preference. Usually the wharves are too congested with 
small articles to give maneuvering space and are not equipped with 
cranes to handle goods in cases or packages that are too heavy to be 
handled by the ship's booms and deck winches. In such cases it is 
more economical to pick up the heavy packages at the point of origin 
in the harbor and place them on a lighter by means of a floating 
derrick with large lifting capacity. One derrick remains alongside 
the hatch to put the heavy packages from the lighter into the ship. 
The lighters are loaded by either stationary or floating derricks at 
the point of origin in the harbor. In the best-equipped ports articles 
of two or more tons are loaded from lighters and floating derricks. 
Dangerous C^r^^.— Dangerous cargo is usually loaded from 
lighters to a ship anchored some distance from the shore. During 
the World War most of the ammunition, TNT, cartridges, shells, 
etc., for the A.E.F., was loaded into ships lying at anchor at 

Gravesend Bay. 

River and Canal Barges.— "When a ship discharges or takes most 
of its cargo to or from river and canal barges, there is no need of 
expensive wharf construction, because the ship can discharge directly 
overside into these canal barges or take its cargo from them. In 
fact, certain great ports, in particular the port of Rotterdam, have 
long rows of mooring posts or dolphins to which ships tie and lade 
or unlade directly overside from river and canal barges. 

Direct Connection by Wharves.— In all the important ports 
of the world and many of the small ones ocean-going ships tie up to 



I 



II 



36 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



t 



a permanent structure. In our American vernacular we call it a 
"dock." However, a dock is an artificial basin of water usually 
separated from fluctuations in the water level by means of water 
gates. A dry-dock is such a basin that is capable of being pumped 
out and made dry. Unless it is perfectly obvious what is meant, it 
is confusing to call the wharf structure a dock. The technical name 
for the permanent structure to which a ship ties to discharge or take 
on cargo is a wharf. This wharf may be either of pile construction 
or masonry and fill, or a combination of the two. Piers are wharves 
that extend into the roadstead or fairway from the shore line. At 
New York the piers are of pile construction, but at other ports, 
particularly the new piers at Philadelphia, Norfolk, and Seattle, 
they are a combination of pile and solid-fill construction. 

Quay is the European term for wharf and generally means a 
solid masonry wharf, the masonry wall usually mounted on piling 
cut off at low water and tied back by stringers into solid ground so 
that the weight of the shore will not push the wall out into the 
water. The quay structure is usually understood to be a long bulk- 
head parallel to the shore, in contradistinction to the pier that extends 
out into the water more or less at right angles to the shore line. The 
wharves that border the artificially excavated basins in the great 
European ports are almost always called quays. Therefore, the 
word quay has come to be associated in the mind with this type of 
structure and will be used hereafter to denote a wharf along the 
bank or shore line or, more correctly, the bulkhead line. 

A quay system in wharf-planning means something more than a 
masonry bulkhead wall. The characteristic of the water-front plan 
behind a quay wall is the arrangement of railroad car tracks, transit 
shed, marginal street, and warehouses parallel with the quay wall 
and with the ship at its berth. This enables cargo to move away 
from each hatch at right angles to the ship without interfering with 
work going on at other hatches. A huge solid-fill quay pier of 
considerable length, 2,000 to 5,000 feet, with a width of 500 to 700 
feet, yet exhibiting the characteristic of freight contact with the ship 
at right angles, is a quay system. For all purposes such a pier is 
two quays back to back. Authorities are in agreement that the quay 
system is more efficient than the New York pier system wherever 
physical conditions permit its operation. 



FROM LAND TO WATER CARRIER 



37 



it 



For consideration here it is immaterial whether the structure is a 
wharf, a pier, or a quay, so long as it is a well-constructed and well- 
equipped place for the lading and unlading of ships. 

The structure of the wharf from the engineering standpoint ^ 
and the efficient layout and design ^ of the same to insure the greatest 
facility of loading and unloading and the handling of the freight 
across it are too complicated to be entered into here. However, the 
questions of wharf structure, design, and equipment are of the 
greatest importance and are not to be treated casually in connection 
with the other problems in this study. 

Wharf EquipmenL^Under "wharf equipment" may be under- 
stood the transit sheds, the presence or absence of railway tracks on 
the wharf, the usual cargo-handling machinery, such as cargo masts, 
winches, cranes of various kinds, telphers, or overhead trolleys, 
electric trailer trucks, horizontal and elevating conveyors, both elec- 
tric and gravity, stacking and tiering machinery, specialized equip- 
ment, and all of the many other devices that have been developed in 
recent years and are being perfected and added to from time to time. 

Therefore, a ship entering a harbor may by necessity or by choice 
establish indirect connections with the land by means of lighter or 
river barges, or if the facilities are afforded may proceed to a wharf 
for direct loading or discharging of cargo. 

The manner of this loading or discharging, either "in stream" or 
at the wharf is largely dependent upon the nature and construction 
of the carrier itself, as well as upon the nature of the cargo. The 
nature of the cargo often determines the type of ship and wharf. 

Kinds of Cargo 

The kind of cargo is most important in determining the type of 
cargo carrier and the machinery for loading and unloading the same. 
The type of cargo is the main consideration in determining the 
methods of storing it at various points in its movement. There is 
bulk cargo, both solid and liquid ; there are uniform packages, such 
as bags, bales, bananas, etc. ; and there is general cargo, made up of 
all kinds of freight in packages, boxes, cases, and containers of 

*See Carlton Green, Wharves and Piers. McGraw-Hill Book Co., 191 5. 
*See R. S. MacElwee, Ports and Terminal Facilities. McGraw-HUl 
Book Co., 1 91 8, 



38 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



irregular size, and weight. These three distinct classes of cargo 
are determined according to the nature of container or lack of 
container for the merchandise. Also, there is cargo of extremely 
high value, such as gold and silver bullion. These different classes 
must be kept in mind, as both carriers and port facilities should be 
designed according to the nature of the cargo handled. In addition, 
there may be considered other characteristics of the cargo, such as the 
danger of fire and explosion. 

Bulk Cargo. — Bulk cargo in general means all commodities not 
shipped in containers. 

Qrain, — Hard grain, such as wheat, rye, barley, rice, and some- 
times oats, are usually shipped in bulk. Grain lends itself to han- 
dling and transfer by gravity flow or pumping by pneumatic ele- 
vators, and also by mechanical conveyors of the chain-bucket and 
even the grab-bucket variety. It is moved horizontally by belt 
conveyors. Grain in bulk requires special equipment for economic 
handling. Wheat in bulk can be handled very cheaply, but if con- 
verted into flour and shipped in barrels or sacks it becomes package 
freight and is handled by manual labor a pinch at a time. The 
holds of most ocean vessels are made tight so that they can carry 
grain pumped into the holds in bulk. Grain shipping has its own 
peculiar considerations, such as conditioning, elevating, stowing for 
safety to itself and to the vessel, and other considerations that will 
come out from time to time in the discussion of stowage. Grain is 
an important cargo for passenger liners, particularly to fill "distress 
room" when other cargo has not been booked in sufficient quantity. 
When grain is shipped in bags it ceases to be a bulk commodity and 
is handled as any similar package freight. 

Ore and Coal. — Ore and coal constitute a large percentage of 
bulk cargoes. These commodities are usually loaded by gravity 
chutes from pockets and unloaded by clam-shell grab buckets or 
chain-bucket conveyors. Equipment for handling coal, ore, lime, 
sand, and gravel, is of special construction in each case. The load- 
ing and discharging of ore and coal has reached a high state of 
development in the United States, particularly on the Great Lakes. 
The movement of these commodities in bulk has become so spe- 
cialized that distinctive types of vessels and wharves have been 
designed for this service. Wherever these bulk commodities are 
handled by regular ocean-going vessels, either as part or all of their 



'^ 



FROM LAND TO WATER CARRIER 



39 



cargo, their loading and discharge become a part of the duties of 
the wharf superintendent or chief stevedore. 

Liquid Cargo. — To this group primarily belong petroleum and 
petroleum products, from crude oil to naphtha, lubricating oil to 
some extent, although this is usually shipped in containers, and 
vegetable oils to an increasing extent. Prerequisites in the handling 
of liquids in bulk are tank vessels, tank cars, pipe lines, and the 
pumping machinery to load and to unload at equipped wharves or 
by means of tank lighters. The growth in the use of fuel oil under 
boilers and for internal-combustion engines of the Diesel type is 
increasing oil shipments to various tank stations throughout the 
world. One interesting development may be cited. It is usual for 
trans-Pacific ships from the United States to carry sufficient fuel oil 
for the round trip. Oil-burning ships going to the Orient utilize the 
tanks made empty on the outward voyage to carry bean oil in bulk 
as cargo on the homeward voyage. The carrying of liquids in bulk 
is increasing. Even molasses may be carried in this way. The 
stevedoring problems involved are very simple, as the entire transfer 
from ship to shore is by means of pumping machinery and special 
equipment. 

Ships' Supplies.— ^unktxmg of a ship with coal or fuel oil and 
putting on board the necessary supplies of lubricating oil and water 
are of particular interest to the wharf superintendent. Unless a 
ship is carrying these articles as cargo, it is usually much cheaper to 
bring them to the ship at her wharf than to move the ship to the 
supply station. She is usually breasted off from the wharf a 
sufficient distance to enable coal, oil, or water lighters to come along 
both sides and to go about their work without interfering with cargo 
loading. Supplying the ship is bulk-commodity handling en detail 
rather than en gros, although large quantities are sometimes required. 

Uniforlm Package Freight. — Analysis of the containers used 
will disclose that large amounts of freight are shipped in "uniform 
containers." By this we mean barrels, kegs, boxes, bags, and crates 
of a uniform size, such as crates of oranges, lemons, apples, and 
other fruit, crates of canned goods, bananas in bunches, and many 
other commodities in packages running fairly uniform as to size 
and weight. Bales of cotton are another example of uniform 
freight. Distinction is drawn between the uniform container and 
the package that may be of a size to hold anything from a phono- 



mm 



40 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

graph to a locomotive. Wherever there is a large percentage of 
uniform freight it may be worth while to put in special machinery 
for handling it. This has been done at the cotton warehouses in 
Galveston, New Orleans, Mobile, and Manchester, England. Banana 
ships are unloaded by specially constructed banana conveyors and 
unloaders at New Orleans. The problem in recent years has been 
attacked with full energy, and new developments in specialized 
machinery are now appearing on the market. 

General Cargo. — Although general cargo does not comprise 
the greatest tonnage of all the commodities carried in the world, it 
is by far the more valuable. For instance, although the great ore, 
grain, and coal movements through the Soo Canal are almost as 
large in a single month as the general-cargo movements through the 
Suez Canal in a year, the value per ton is obviously far greater at 
Suez. General cargo makes up the large amount of the commerce 
of the world as we understand it. It is with general cargo primarily 
that the steamship lines, and to a large extent the tramp ship, are 
concerned. General cargo may include some bulk shipments; it 
includes a large portion of uniform packages and, in addition, all 
those various crates and boxes that are familiar to our sight along 
the wharves of the world's ports. General cargo may also include 
dangerous and precious cargo. It is the lading and unlading, 
the handling, the warehousing, the stowing of general cargo that 
is the principal object of the study and concern of marine ship- 
ping. 

General cargo, so far as handling in our American ports is 
concerned, is divided roughly into two classes according to the weight 
of the package to be handled. Shipping companies agree to load, as 
part of their duties as carriers, all pacakages of more than 2,000 
pounds weight, that are brought alongside. When packages are of a 
greater weight than 2,000 pounds each, in many cases it becomes 
necessary to have special equipment, and the steamship companies are 
not inclined to consider the handling of these large packages as in- 
cluded in the freight rate. Although the modern cargo masts of newer 
ocean ships are capable of lifting packages of more than 10,000 
pounds in weight, in most cases it is expedient to use special facili- 
ties. Under most favorable conditions the large package requires 
more time and labor to load and stow. Where it is possible to set 
a railroad car on tracks within reach of the ship's tackle, such large 






FROM LAND TO WATER CARRIER 



41 



packages may be lifted aboard from a gondola or flat car on the 
wharf side. However, whenever there are many packages of much 
above two tons each it is more economical and more expedient to 
float them alongside the vessel from the water side and to use a 
floating derrick to put them aboard. This equipment for handling 
heavy freight is in a sense analogous to the equipment for handling 
grain or coal, since it is special equipment and gives water-side 
delivery. All such miscellaneous parcels, large and small, go to 
make up the cargo of a modern steamship and tax the ingenuity 
of the stevedore. From the outset it is well to remember that 
general cargo is divided roughly into light packages and heavy 

packages. 

Dangerous Cargo. — Dangerous cargo belongs either to the 
general or to bulk-cargo categories. The determining feature is not 
the container or the size of the package, but the inherent quality of 
the commodity. The question of shipping dangerous cargo was 
peculiarly important during the World War when the United States 
was making delivery to the Allies of TNT, gunpowder, car- 
tridges, shells and other explosives. The terrific blow-up at the 
Longtown Pier in New Jersey that wrecked all the window glass in 
lower Manhattan Island is one example of how dangerous cargo 
may act on certain occasions. Petroleum, cargo coal, cotton, acids, 
rags, and many other commodities are considered dangerous cargo. 
Precautions must be taken to safeguard the ship, its burden, and its 
crew. The quality of the cargo, therefore, in this study will receive 
considerable attention, as the wharf superintendent and his chief 
stevedore must be constantly on the alert as regards the nature of 
the cargo in its relation to all the factors of stowage. 

Precious Cargo. — Precious cargo is a subdivision of general 
cargo. In precious cargo we have shipments of goods of very high 
value, in particular shipments of gold and silver and other precious 
metals and precious stones. The mails are precious cargo. The 
transmarine shipment of precious metals takes a very important place 
in international commerce. Before international exchange and credits 
were entirely upset by the World War, gold shipments were made 
by the principal commercial nations to balance payment. It required 
particular handling and safeguarding on the wharf, while being 
loaded, and aboard the ship, adding much to the care and respon- 
sibility of the pier superintendent and his force. 



I 






42 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



Types of Carriers 



The nature of the cargo exerts the dominating influence on the 
types of carrier and the cargo transfer, handling, and stowage 
facilities. The tendency toward special designs for special cargoes 
and trades is marked, and specialization of equipment afloat and 
ashore should be increased. At present there are two main groupings 
of carriers from the cargo transfer and handling standpoint: (i) 
side port, and (2) deck-hatch — the horizontal and the vertical 
transfer systems. 

Side-port Vessels. — Side ports for loading and unloading 
characterizes one class of vessels. This class is composed principally 
of coastwise, lake and river vessels, and covered lighters ; also some 

types of river barges. Coastwise, 
river, and lake passenger vessels 
have passenger accommodations 
almost the entire length of the 
ship, and the only point of 
entrance for cargo is through the 
side ports. Side-port transfer ne- 
cessitates a horizontal movement 
for all deck loads. If goods are 
loaded from the decks into the holds 
it must be done within the ship. 
Even if lake and coastwise vessels are not constructed for pas- 
senger accommodation, the main deck of the vessel is covered from 
stem and stern and they are loaded through side ports just the same 
as their more luxurious sisters, the passenger liners. The transit 
movement is by necessity a horizontal one. Side-port vessels are 
usually loaded by longshoremen trucking the cargo across a gang- 
plank from the wharf to the main deck of the vessel. 

Hatch Vessels. — Deck hatches characterize ocean-going vessels 
which are loaded vertically. The usual cargo carrier has four or 
five hatches. Cargo is hoisted vertically, swung sidewise across the 
deck, and lowered vertically. Instead of the longshoremen walking 
from the ship to the shore with their load and back again empty, 
there are three gangs : one in the hold, one on the deck working the 
winches, and one on the wharf. The entire operation of hatch loading 
and stowing is fundamentally different from that of side-port loading. 




Fig. I. — SIDE PORTS. A Great 
Lakes package freight steamer. 



FROM LAND TO WATER CARRIER 



43 



All-hatch Vessels. — Vessels are built for particular kinds of 
service. One of the most important types of cargo-carrying vessels 
is that developed on the Great Lakes, in which the entire hull of the 
vessel, except a small section aft, reserved for the boilers and engine 
is one continuous hold divided by a few bulkheads. The hatches 
extend almost entirely across the vessel from rail to rail. There 
are sometimes as many as thirty-eight hatches over the cargo space 
of a single vessel. The hold is unobstructed by stanchions, as there 
is only one deck to support. These vessels are built to carry all 
materials in bulk that can be handled by gravity chutes into the 
ship and by grab buckets or suction elevators out of the ship, such as 
small, hard grain, coal, limestone, etc. Vessels of this type require 
special equipment for loading and unloading, and the equipment 
and the vessels are built to conform to a definite system. The 
question of stevedoring is, therefore, one almost entirely of mechani- 
cal appliances, the ideal toward which all water-front operation 
strives. 

Ocean-going Colliers. — Ocean-going colliers and ore-carry- 
ing vessels have been developed that are somewhat similar to the 
lake carrier, but they have more lateral and longitudinal rigidity to 
be able to withstand the strain of the greater wave lengths of the 
high seas. This has led to the building of bulk-freight carriers 
specially designed for the ocean. The typical collier or the ore- 
carrying vessel — for instance, in the Swedish-Rotterdam ore trade — 
is easily distinguishable by the double rows of hoisting masts corre- 
sponding in number to at least twice the number of hatches. In 
principle, the typical collier, or ore-carrying sea vessel, is the same 
as the very efficient lake carrier, except that it carries its own han- 
dling machinery in order to discharge at any point directly overside 
into lighters, canal boats, or river barges. 

Tank Vessels. — The tanker is another development of the 
specially designed bulk-cargo vessels. Tankers are similar to the 
all-hatch lake vessel in principle, that is, they have the large mid- 
ship structure unobstructed and the machinery and the navigating 
bridges as near stern and stem as possible. Tankers carry their own 
pumping machinery in order to handle their cargoes. The principal 
cargo carried by tankers in bulk is crude and refined petroleum, 
gasoline, etc. Tankers sometimes carry molasses, bean oil, and other 
similar liquids in bulk. 



44 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



Refrigerator Ships. — Refrigerator ships may be especially 
built for the purpose from keel up, or they may be ordinary tramp 
or liner vessels fitted with refrigeration to carry meats, fresh veg- 
etables, fruits, and other perishable commodities. Refrigerated car- 
goes require special handling. The refrigerator ship in outward 
appearance does not differ materially from the ordinary cargo vessel. 

These, then, are the principal materials with which we have to 
deal — cargoes, wharves, and ships. 



I 



CHAPTER III 

WHARF OFFICE ORGANIZATION ^ 

The General Wharf Superintendent.-The general wharf su- 
permtendent is in charge of all the piers and has every pier activity, 
even to the smallest detail, always at his command. H.s experience 
must be such that whenever he walks through the piers, which he 
does once or twice a day. he can tell at a glance whether all 
the activities are moving along as smoothly as they should. He is 
supplied with a clerical assistant, who is a stenographer and attends 
to the office routine work, which is practically the same as the work 

in any commercial office. _ 

. The Pier Superintendent.— The general superintendent has 
under him a pier superintendent for each pier, whose duty it is 
to superintend everything pertaining to the handling of cargo from 
the time it is accepted by the delivery clerk from the owner or shipper 
until it is properly stowed in the ship, or from the time the cargo is 
taken from the ship and delivered to the owner or consignee, baggage 
included. The pier superintendent must at all times keep m close 
touch with each progressive step, in order to give any information at 
any time when called upon by the general wharf superintendent or 
the head office. It is his duty to adjust all minor misunderstandings 
that may occur on his pier, unless he feels the trouble is beyond his 

jurisdiction. „ , j • 

The Stowage Clerk.-The stowage clerk, usually located m 
the office of the pier superintendent, sees that the cargo is stowed m 
accordance with the stowage plan, which has been previously pre- 
pared by the general manager after consulting the ship's captam. 
The stowage clerk copies this stowage plan on a profile chart and 
makes two additional copies, one to go with the ship and one to be 
sent to the clearance office of the customhouBe. The first chart 

made out is retained by the general wharf su perintendent. 

^ ^This chapter is taken largely from MTcElwee "Training for the 

Documents.) 

45 



46 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



The stowage clerk has another duty to perform. Some captains, 
by reason of their own experience in navigating the ship, want the 
ship loaded so that she will ride on an even keel ; others may want 
the ship to have a drag, and still others may want her slightly down 
at the head. The figures on the bow and stern which indicate the 
ship's load draft are exactly 6 inches high and are spaced 6 inches 
apart. For instance, from the bottom of figure 12 to the bottom of 

I 



M^nagfir of Operations 



I 



Ba^<^a^e Waater> 



I - 1*^ Cabin ; I 
I BAddAtfS Clark I 

Bftgg^ie ClrrK 



I 



j_ 5t-e«raatf 



General Wharf Supt. 

I 



I Pier Supt. 
I Ion Each Pier 



\SXon40 CfKl 



|Stor*BooW 



EMCf Dell 
m BouM< 

J Delivery CJrrK l 
1 on Emch Pi»r i 



^.^i:i'fiJil.lf-\ 



|ChicFSrtfy«gaor<| pRecgivin^Clgrld 



Kftt^^fKS*^ 



IfrawjjForgmgw 



LonjSKorgmml | ^'fA^t-^ggfc'^ I 



A»tDtlivf«yOrk| 



IChecK CterKsl 
^ Permit CIgrK | 
^ Tallymen I0-3ol 



|t.«iKtera<|gClfrKl 



^L^mMEB 



jlO-»0T»ll/m#B 



I Detective forcri I T>me Keeper | 

{Atst Time Keeper 



I Lon<jshoremen*| 
♦ H'iVed. from or 
thru Stevedores 
toHanile b^jfc^^e. 

Fig. 2. — PLAN OF WHARF-OFFICE ORGANIZATION. 

figure 11 is just 12 inches. Consequently, if the captain wishes his 
shij^to have a 6-inch drag, the stowage clerk, when the ship is loaded, 
will see that the water line coincides with the top of a figure on the 
stern and is even with the bottom of the same figure on the bow. 
If a ship is to ride on an even keel, the water line must coincide 
either with the top or bottom of corresponding figures on the bow 
and stern. The stowage clerk, toward the end of loading, watches 
the marks closely and indicates to the chief stevedore that the vessel 
is not receiving the required trim by so and so much. In fact, the 



WHARF OFFICE ORGANIZATION 



47 



stowage clerk frequently checks the fore-and-aft drafts during load- 
ing in order to keep the ship on an even keel until nearly loaded, 
when he proceeds carefully in order to have the ship ride as the cap- 
tain wishes. 

The Store Clerk.— The store clerk, also directly under the pier 
superintendent, is iii charge of supplies, such as ropes, slings, falls, 
etc., which belong to the piers and are used in connection with the 
ship's gear when handling cargo. It is his duty to see that every- 
thing under his care is kept in its proper place, to keep a record of all 
material in his charge, order new material when needed, and dispose 
of all worn-out rope and slings. He gives out rope, slings, etc., to 
the longshoremen on checks or receipts, and is held responsible for 
all material not returned to him. He cuts all new rope to the proper 
lengths; his helpers (longshoremen as a rule) make up slings from 
the best part of wors rope, also splice new slings, and in general 
keep everything required in good shape, including the repairing of 
blocks, etc. 

Baggage Department 

Operation of this department comes under the general wharf 
superintendent. It consists of a baggage master, an assistant bag- 
gage master, and baggage clerks, according to the amount of pas- 
senger travel. All rules or instructions governing the handling of 
baggage are issued by the passenger department. 

Baggage Master. — The baggage master is responsible for this 
department. It is his duty to see that the rules issued by the pas- 
senger department are carried out. On outward sailings it is the 
duty of the baggage master to record all baggage and see that it 
is properly laden aboard steamer as the passenger desires — in the 
stateroom, in the baggage room where passenger may have access on 
the voyage, or in the hold where it is not accessible until the steamer 
arrives at destination. On inbound steamers it is the duty of this 
department to see that all passengers' baggage discharged from the 
steamer is placed under the proper letter of the alphabet on the pier 
for customs examination. The labor for handling trunks on the 
wharf is furnished by the chief stevedore. Longshoremen are glad 
to get this sort of work because of the tips in addition to wages. 
Hand baggage and steamer trunks are handled by the ship's stewards. 



i\ 



-trrg~T»a 



48 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



WHAllF OFFICE ORGANIZATION 



49 



The baggage department employees must be careful and courteous 
at all times. A passenger's comfort depends in many ways on the 
efficiency of this staff. It is important for the baggage department 
officials, especially in handling third-class and steerage passengers' 
baggage, to have a speaking knowledge of foreign languages, such 
as French, Italian, Spanish, the Scandinavian languages, German, 
Polish, and Russian, as well as familiarity with the value of foreign 
money. There is a separate baggage room for cabin passengers and 
for steerage passengers. 



The Receiving Department 

There is a head receiving clerk for each pier (at Atlantic ports 
this is for eastbound freight received for loading on to the ship), 
with a clerical staff of from two to six assistants, according to the 
size of the pier and the amount of cargo handled. On the larger 
piers the staff includes an assistant clerk, a cargo-sheet clerk, a 
lighter clerk, an extension clerk, and checkers or tally clerks. 

The Chief Receiving Clerk.— This employee is in charge of 
the receipt of all goods on the pier. He hires his assistants, who are 
permanent employees (not day workers), and assigns them to their 
regular work and is responsible for the records and reports of his 
office. He also indicates the number of tallymen required, who are 
hired and assigned to him, or he may hire them himself. At the 
end of each loading of a ship he turns the records over to the pier 
superintendent. He is in line of promotion to take the position of 
pier superintendent, but, of course, has competition from other 
members of the wharf staff who are heads of other departments. 

The Assistant Receiving Clerk.— The assistant receiving clerk 
occupies a permanent position ; that is, he is not hired by the hour 
for the job as are tallymen and longshoremen. Usually he is not a 
union man and is on a straight salary basis. He is responsible 
for the signing of the dock receipts when goods are delivered at the 
pier. The dock receipt is a very important ad interim document. 
The receiving clerk must come up through the other ranks in order 
to receive that training in routine detail which will enable him easily 
to detect mistakes and serious errors when they come over his desk. 
Through experience as tallyman and clerk he acquires a knowledge 



of packages and freight as to size, weight, and many other details, 
that enables him to recognize a mistake at a glance. He is in charge 
of the detail work of the receiving office. He directs the activities 
of the lighter, stowage, and tally clerks, changing them from point to 
point in accordance with the demands of loading and unloading the 
cargo, or when handling cargo on the pier. He checks all records 

and reports. 

Hours of Work,—T\it receiving clerks, delivery clerks and their 
assistants, time keepers and assistants, baggage masters and assis- 
tants, all work eight hours a day, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with one hour 
for lunch. They get time and a half for all overtime, and double 
time for Sundays and holidays. In May, 1919, according to the 
president of the Steamship Clerks' Association, there was no stand- 
ard pay for these clerks, the salary ranging from $36 per week as a 

minimum to $50 maximum. 

The Cargo-sheet Clerk.— The position of a cargo-sheet clerk 
is an advancement over the extension and lighterage clerks. He is 
responsible for making up the dock list or cargo sheet from the stubs 
of the dock receipts that are given to the truckmen who deliver the 
goods and from the tally sheets handed to him by the extension clerk 
and the lighterage clerk. The cargo-sheet clerk is responsible for the 
correct entering on the cargo sheets of all necessary information 
required before the vessel leaves the pier. It should be borne in 
mind that this work must be absolutely accurate and also done with 
dispatch, because the ship, when loading, receives its cargo rapidly 
and must not be delayed because of the lack of data that cargo clerks 
get together to make the manifest. The manifest must be sworn to 
and delivered at the customhouse as a true account of amount, kind, 
and destination of articles of cargo before the ship can be cleared. 
("Dock sheets" of receiving clerks' returns should not be confused 
with "cargo books," which are made for use of ship's officer only.) 
The Lighter Clerk.— Another tallyman promoted to full time 
and permanent pay in the receiving office is the lighterage clerk. He 
receives the lighterage manifest and from it makes up the data that 
goes into the ship's manifest. He makes a dock sheet for this pur- 
pose. Through tallymen he keeps tally of all cargo loaded into the 
ship from a lighter. He keeps a record of the number of pieces of 
cargo, the number and mark on each piece, the weight and measure- 
ment, the number of the hold, and the deck in the hold in which it 



•t*<«n«V7,4WMj « 



50 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

is stowed. Some companies require him to get this data from the 
lighter and others from the deck of the ship. 

The Extension Clerk.— The tally sheets from the tallymen go 
to the extension clerk in the receiving office on the pier. The duty 
of the extension clerk is to convert all straight measurements of the 
various pieces of cargo into cubic measurements. The position of 
extension clerk is a promotion from that of tallyman. He is a 
union man and to all intents and purposes a tallyman, but works 
full time. Although receiving the same wage, he is not laid off on 
slack days at the pier. The extension clerk, by means of conversion 
or cubical measurement tables, converts the weights and measure- 
ments on the tally slips to weight tons or 40 cubic feet, and consoli- 
dates the report ready for the calculation of freight in the prepara- 
tion of the dock sheets from which is made the ship's manifest in 
the main office. A case may measure 4 by 4 by 10 feet. This is 160 
cubic feet or 4 measurement tons. The case may weigh only 2>4 
tons, but the extension clerk marks down the "tonnage" on which 
the ship receives the greatest return. Freight charges are based on 

these records. 

Tallymen or Checkers.— At the bottom of the list of clerks are 
tallymen, sometimes called "tally clerks" or "checkers," who con- 
stitute the foundation of the clerical force on the pier. A large pier 
will employ from ten to thirty tallymen in each department for 
incoming and for outgoing freight. They count and measure 
packages delivered to the wharf for shipment, and note any damaged 
or unusual condition of the package. They also check or tally the 
cargo discharged from vessels. Their reports are made on tally 
sheets. Tallymen are usually union men. They are paid by the 
hour on an eight-hour day basis, but in the interest of efficiency as 
many as possible are kept in steady employment on the piers. 

The working hours for checkers (May, 1919). or tally clerks, 
are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with an hour for lunch, six days a week, 
for which they receive $5 a day. If they work before 8 a.m., or 
after 5 p.m., they receive $1 an hour for such service. For Sundays 
and holidays they receive $8, whether they work one or eight hours.^ 
Tallymen may be advanced to more responsible and permanent 
positions, but they are always paid on the time basis until they 



*The above figures were obtained from the business agent and secre- 
tary of the Checkers' Union, Local 874, New York, N. Y. 






I H 



WHARF OFFICE ORGANIZATION 



51 



become assistant chiefs or chiefs of a department. Tallymen should 
have a good common-school education or preferably a high-school 
education. They are usually taken on when about eighteen years 
old, but there is no reason why a college graduate should not begin 
as a tallyman in the shipping business. A young man taking this 
position should have a good handwriting and be good in arithmetic, 
as much of the work is measuring dimensions of cargo. The position 
is one of the best openings for a man to learn the shipping business 
from the ground up. The vice president of a great company, who 
himself, at sixteen, started as an apprentice in a shipping office, 
stated that there is no place in the shipping business where a man 
can learn as much about it in the same length of time as in the 
position of tallyman. 

The Stevedore 

The stevedore is the man who is directly responsible for the 
loading and stowing of a ship or for discharging its cargo. The 
stevedore's gang for each hatch unloading usually consists of 23 
longshoremen, 6 "in the hold," 5 sailormen on deck and 12 men on 
the pier. These three groups or gangs are under one stevedore fore- 
man, or sometimes there is one foreman for the forward hatches and 
another foreman for the after hatches. Longshoreman work is pri- 
marily manual labor, although much skill is developed, particularly 
by those who handle the deck winches that run the fall ropes. The 
stevedore is the executive. It is much the same relation as that 
existing between masons and carpenters and the contractor. Stowmg 
in the hold requires experience and skill.^ 

The Chief or Boss Stevedore.— The chief or boss stevedore 
of a pier is an important person. He usually rises from the ranks 
of the longshoremen. He learns by experience how a ship can be 
loaded and in time acquires knowledge of the various ships of the 
line and their peculiarities. Ships have their own individuality and 
do not carry their loads alike. He is assisted by the ship's officers, 
who also acquire an intimate knowledge of how a cargo can best be 
stowed on their own particular vessel. The ship must be loaded to 
capacity so as to avoid waste of carrying space, and yet it must not 
be loaded below the safe-load line or in such manner as to strain 

*See Chapter IV, page 55; also Barnes, The Longshoremen, pp. 51-54. 



IllWfcni 



. y s m-^.- 




w 






52 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

hull or expose cargo to damage. Furthermore, certain kinds of 
cargo are prohibited by law and certain other kinds may be 
carried only in a manner specified by law. A thoroughly competent 
chief stevedore is of such importance that he is seldom promoted to 
be pier superintendent, it being more advantageous to keep him on 
the job and increase his pay. A longshoreman or a boss stevedore 
may save some capital and become a contracting stevedore, but this 
has lately become more difficult, as an increased number of steam- 
ship lines do their stevedoring under their own salaried chief steve- 
dore instead of letting it out on contracts. 

Longshoremen. — Longshoremen * are usually union men. They 
work by the hour. Formerly a gang could load 250 tons a day, but 
now the efficiency of the longshoremen has decreased until a gang 
will load less than half this amount. Wages have about doubled, 
making a 400 per cent increase in the cost per ton of loading and 
discharging vessels. As in other industries, the only remedy is to 
increase the output of the worker by mechanical inventions. "Labor- 
saving machinery" is simply an expression for mechanical devices 
that will enable one longshoreman to handle many more tons of 

freight in eight hours. 

The Timekeeper.— Each pier has a timekeeper and an assistant 
timekeeper. Sometimes a tallyman is assigned as a third member of 
this force. On some piers the timekeeper force is a large one; on 
others two or three on each pier are considered sufficient. The 
qualification for this position is primarily a memory for faces and 
names. The timekeeper checks the time that the men enter and leave 
the pier. Some lines use a time clock, but on some large piers full 
reliance is placed on the timekeeper's quick eye and memory. It 
requires a clear head to be a timekeeper, as he has to charge labor 
time against forty-eight different items (in the cost accounting of 
the company here cited). The timekeeper also makes reports on 
accidents. The performance of the duties of this position involves 
considerable exposure at drafty pier entrances, summer and winter, 
but as it is almost entirely an open-air job, it offers this advantage 
to those who do not like to work inside. The timekeeper makes up 
the pay envelopes for the men and is responsible for the pay of the 
pier force. A tallyman is often assigned to full-time duty as assist- 
ant timekeeper and is in line for promotion to timekeeper. 

* See Chapter IV, page 55; also Barnes, The Longshoremen, 



WHARF OFFICE ORGANIZATION 



The Delivery Department 



53 



The delivery department has charge of incoming freight. (At 
Atlantic ports this is westbound freight.) For each group of piers 
there is a chief delivery clerk, who has under him a delivery clerk 
on each pier. Beginning at the bottom are tallymen, who belong to 
the same union as those of the receiving department. The force of 
tallymen is the same and may be employed by either department. 
The tallymen check the goods as they come from the ship on to the 
pier and make out checking slips in such a manner that it is possible 
at the office to see what cargo on the manifest has been received. 
Errors of excess or deficiency are detected in this way and brought 
to the attention of the delivery clerk, who is responsible for the 
notation of any pilfering or damaged packages. 

Aside from the tallymen, the office force of the inbound freight 
department consists of a delivery clerk, one or two assistant delivery 
clerks, clearance clerk, and customhouse clerks, who handle the 
several operations of inbound freight routine. 

While the ship is at sea the cargo-discharging receipt book is 
made up by the purser from the ship's manifest. When the goods 
are landed from the vessel and made ready for deliveiy they are 
checked by the tallymen according to marks and numbers on tally 
slips and stamped by the customs inspector to show that the necessary 
request for landing permit has been lodged. The tally slips are 
sent to the delivery office and if everything is in order, freight paid, 
etc., receipts are taken and delivery effected. The cargo book goes 
to the receiving office on the pier; the bills of lading go to the 
customhouse and are entered there ; and a permit to take the goods 
from the pier is issued. When the goods are taken from the pier 
an entry to that effect is made in the cargo book. When 10 per cent 
of the goods go to the customs appraisers' stores for valuation, they- 
must be accounted for and the necessary entry made and papers 
issued to cover this merchandise. The clearance clerk is entrusted 
with the issuing of the proper notices and the checking of delivery 
of shipments to the consignee. In addition, the members of his 
force must make out lien notices on the freight, and after five days 
prepare removal notices directing removal of goods within forty- 
eight hours. If they are not removed they go to warehouses "at the 
cost of the merchandise," for which the proper papers and receipts 



5 4i;ir^'ii:= 



::-]j.-';"rT' -■'—'■■ 



BSaBTlr I'n**^ 






54 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

must be made out. There are also general order store notices, 
damaged cargo special reports, claim reports, and many other forms 
that must be rapidly and carefully handled by this force and checked 
by the chief clerk in charge. The inbound or delivery department 
on the pier is complicated because of the customs formalities. 
Damage or loss is usually detected at the time of landing and 
delivery of the merchandise to the consignee rather than vfhtn it is 
loaded. This puts most of the work for claims and adjustments on 
the receiving staff. 

The Detective Force 

/ 

Under the wharf superintendent on every pier is a private detec- 
tive force maintained by the company or furnished by an agency 
under contract. The paper work in connection with service will be 
discussed in a later chapter. These detectives, like those in depart- 
ment stores, are primarily interested in preventing pilfering ; they 
become exj)ert in noticing any package that has been tampered with 
and in diagnosing other causes of damage to cargo. The judgment 
of an experienced pier detective is valuable in the adjustment of all 
kinds of insurance claims as well as in the protection of the cargo. 

There is a chief detective with several assistants on each pier. 
They are private detectives— a part of the wharf force. When a 
ship is being loaded an assistant detective is placed in each hold, 
while others are stationed at advantageous points on the pier to 
keep a watchful eye on all activities. 

This survey of the wharf organization is given here to serve in 
orienting the newcomer, as was the purpose of the preceding chap- 
ters. Details of the various duties and departments are discussed in 
succeeding chapters. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE LONGSHOREMEN* 

Longshoremen and the Importance of Their Work.— The 
general public has only within the last year or two become aware of 
the meaning of the term "longshoremen" and the importance of the 
longshoreman's work. The aid given by the longshoremen in dis- 
patching supplies to France, the competition between the different 
stevedore units at the base ports abroad, and the succession of 
longshore labor troubles and strikes in this and other countries have 
all helped us to recognize that a longshoreman is one who loads or 
unloads ships. This, however, is not an exact definition. He must 
be distinguished from the stevedore, who is his superintendent — or 
employer; from members of the crew who no longer a*ist in the 
loading operations; and from the dock workers and other laborers 
along the water front. The National Adjustment Commission has 
defined a longshoreman as "one who carries cargo to the hatch or to 
the ship's side," but this definition is not broad enough, for long- 
shoremen also work on the deck and in the hold of the vessel. Any 
laborer who is employed for the purpose of loading or discharging 
ship's cargo is a longshoreman. 

There are perhaps 90,000 men in the United States who may 
properly be classed as longshoremen, and there are many more who 
occasionally engage in longshore work. These few men handle 
millions of tons of domestic freight and over 90,000,000 tons of 
foreign freight every year; they are responsible for the safety of 
more than ten billion dollars' worth of exports and imports ; and yet 
they are an isolated and unknown group of our society. There is 
only one book about them and the author of that states that "the 
most conspicuous fact concerning the longshoreman is his incon- 
spicuousness. Libraries, statistical reports, labor histories almost 
without exception ignore him or misstate his case." ^ 



' By Thomas R. Taylor. 
''Barnes, The Longshoremen. 



55 



L 



I 



56 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



THE LONGSHOREMEN 



57 



'Y 



Nationality and Skill. — The group is made up very largely at 
the present time, and especially along the Atlantic seaboard, of Irish, 
Negroes, and southern Europeans. Negro longshoremen are com- 
mon from Galveston to Baltimore, and they flocked to Philadelphia 
and New York in large numbers when the World War cut off the 
immigration of unskilled labor. At New York, the Irish were 
16 vy employed almost exclusively until about 1887, when there was a 

great influx of Italians. Since then, men of other races, especially 
*? Jews and Slavs, have entered the industry and the average gang at 
present is a mixture of almost all races. Negroes are ordinarily 
placed in groups by themselves, but it is not uncommon to see them 
in holds working with Germans, Greeks, Jews, Italians, Austrians, 
Syrians, and others. Irish or Americans are still preferred, for 
they are stronger on the average, are less subject to disease, and 
keep their head in emergencies and in the flood of Bolshevist litera- 
ture which has recently swept its flotsam of trash into the ears of 
the gullible Negroes and southern Europeans. 

It will be seen that, with the exception of the Irish, the longshore 
group is composed largely of the cheap, unskilled type of labor. 
The reason for this is the casual nature of the work rather than the 
scale of wages or the degree oFs^ill required. The longshoreman 
can never be sure of steady employment, because the amount of 
available work depends altogether upon the number of ships in port 
and this is subject to great fluctuations from day to day or from 
season to season. The individual longshoreman who is familiar 
perhaps with the opportunities for work in only one part of the 
y^ port, in which part there may be much greater variation than shown 
for the port as a whole, feels these fluctuations greatly. This is well 
^ illustrated in New York where there are great distances between 
different sections of the port. The longshoreman, working in the 
Chelsea section, is not in touch with the opportunities for work in 
/ Hoboken or Brooklyn, and the steadiness of his employment depends 
almost altogether on the number of ships loading and discharging 
at the Chelsea piers. Under conditions such as these it is difficult to 
attract the better class of laborers who prefer permanent employ- 
ment even if the daily wage is less. Consequently the longshore- 
men's trade has been left largely to the casual, unskilled type. This 
condition will undoubtedly continue as long as there is lack of 
permanency about the work, and as long as other factors, such as 



/ 



'A 



I 



1 



h 



2 



the dangerous nature of the occupation, emphasize the relative 
undesirability of the trade. 

Classification according to Skill. — The building up of a 
skilled personnel is made difficult also by the variation in the char^ 
acter of the work of the individual longshoremen. Manual skill is 
developed by constant repetition of one movement or one set of 
movements, and the average longshoreman does not have the oppor- 
tunity for such repetition. He works on different piers and ships, 
with different commodities, and at different operations. Almost 
every day, or even every hour, his work changes. He is forceito be 
a Jack-of-all-trades. There are, however, certain chances for spe- 
cialization, and these have afforded several bases of classification of 
longshoremen according to their skill. There is first the classifica- 
tion of skill according to the class of trade of the ship being worked. 

J The tjHeep^sea^' longshoremen, who load and discharge the cargoes of 
ships in the foreign trade, must do their work more carefully than 
those~working on a coastwise vessel, and they stand on a higher 
plane and receive higher wages than the coastwise worker. The 

(coastwise worker in turn ranks higher than the man who handles the 
cargoes of harbor craft and to whom the term "shenanago" is deri- 
sively applied. "^ 

Classification according to Trade. — There can be made a sec- 
ond classification based on the commodity handled. No skill or 
dexterity is required in the handling of some commodities, and any 
man picked up off the streets can learn his duties in a few minutes. 
The unloading of bananas is an excellent illustration of this, for 
this work consists simply of passing bunches of bananas along a 
chain of men. These men are considered professionally and socially 
inferior to those who work on commodities that are more difficult to 
transfer or stow. The loading or discharging of_ lumber, ^ain, 
coal, explosives, oil, barreled materials, and of some other com- 
modities requires the exercise of qualities not possessed or developed 
by the "banana fiend," and it is in the handling of these commodi- 
ties that we find longshoremen who may be properly considered 
skilled specialists. A grain trimmer, for example, may become so 
adept that he is in great demand and will refuse to work on any- 
thing but grain. The great mass of longshoremen, however, handle 
general cargo or bulk cargo indiscriminately and make no effort to 
specialize. 



V 



^ 



58 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



THE LONGSHOREMEN 



59 






A 



Classification according to Actual Work Performed. — 
Some truck goods on the pier, others make up the slings, give signals, 
run the winches or falls, or stow goods in the hold. In some places 
there are well-defined lines between these classes. A pier man will 
stay a pier man until he is promoted to a higher grade, and a winch- 
man will operate winches day after day. In such places there is 
opportunity for specialization. At other ports, however, there 
is little or no distinction, and a man shifts from one work to 
another. 

Ways of Building Up a Skilled Personnel. — It would be 
advantageous to the shipowner if skilled workmen could be attracted 
to, or developed in, the trade, for inefficient and careless work causes 
delays in port and damages to cargo and ship. There are two 
possible ways of building up such a skilled force. One is to attract 
the better type of man by regularizing employment in paying the 
men on the monthly or weekly basis instead of by the hour or day, 
and this course has been taken by several steamship companies. The 
other method is to develop skill under the present daily wage system 
by hiring specialists only for all work that requires any training. 
A central employment agency could keep all longshoremen listed as 



barrel men, coal trimmers, winchmen, etc., and the stevedore or pier 
superintendent could call for those needed. This system has been 
^ adopted at several foreign ports but is rather consistently opposed 
by stevedores in this country. 

Methods of Hiring Longshoremen. — The methods of hiring 
generally used in the United States are quite primitive. At New 
York the expected arrival of a vessel is heralded by the hoisting of 
a flag at the pier at which it will dock, and by a notice in the news- 
papers. Longshoremen out of work gather outside the entrance to 
the pier shortly before the vessel arrives or in the morning following 
' arrival. It is customary for them to form or "shape" in a semicircle 

f at the pier entrance. When the ship is ready to work, the stevedore 
or foreman takes a place within the "shape" and begins picking out 
men with whom he is familiar or to whom he is attracted. As each 

/ man is called out he passes by the timekeeper, gives his name and 
receives a numbered check. Several men are then combined into a 
gang, put in charge of a foreman, and sent to work. A gang may be 
held together only for a few hours, or it may be kept as long as there 
is work on that one ship or on several ships. When a man is released 



he gives his check number to the timekeeper, but he does not sur- 
render his check until he is paid at the end of the week. 

This method has several modifications. At Philadelphia, for 
example, the men gather "at the corner" of Front and Christian 
Streets in the evening, and are employed for the following day. At 
some piers in New York men have been hired by the hundred instead 
of by individuals or gangs. Men are given checks of the first 
hundred, second hundred, or third hundred, according to their ability, 
and if there is a shortage of work, the men holding checks of the 
lowered hundreds will not be hired. 

Whenever men are hired in this way employment is by the hour 
only. If there is a delay in the receipt of freight and therefore in 
the loading operations, part or all of the men will be released. Nor 
can the foreman always tell them when to return. They may go 
home for the rest of the day, seek work elsewhere, or stay near the 
pier entrance in the hope that they will Jbe wanted. 

To overcome this undesirable situation some companies with 
regular sailings have tried the method of employing men by the 
week or month. In some cases this has worked very satisfactorily, 
and it is to be hoped that more companies will find it a plan 
convenient to adopt. 

Gang Work. — It would also be beneficial to hold the gangs 
intact as much as possible. A gang is a group of longshoremen 
working as a unit in handlingj^axgo^hrough one hatch. If the same 
men^^ork together~-coTwt:aiTfTy7 they will grow accustomed to one 
another and there will be a development of teamwork. 

The size of the gang and the distribution of its members depend 
upon many factors, the most important of which are the kind of 
cargo, and whether the cargo is being loaded or discharged. In the 
loading of general cargo the average size of the gang is-from 18 to 
24 men. Approximately one-half of these will be in the hold stow- 
ing the goods; three to five will be on deck running the winches, 
handling the falls, and giving signals ; and the remainder will be 
on the pier, trucking the freight to the picking-up place and making 
up the drafts. In the discharge of general cargo the gang is about 
the same size, but more men (approximately one-half of the total) 
are placed on the pier, trucking, sorting, and filling the consign- 
ments. In either case, however, the size will vary with the progress 
of the work, with the character of the ship and its transfer equip- 



6o 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



THE LONGSHOREMEN 



6i 



:1' 



I H 



ment, with the nature of the cargo, and with other factors. When 
loading has just begun, the distances in the hold are relatively great 
and more men can be accommodated and are required to move and 
stow the goods than when the hold is nearly full. If the holds and 
hatches are large and the transfer equipment is adequate, more men 
can be placed in a gang, or two or three gangs can be worked at one 
hatch. Machinery to handle the goods on the pier or between the 
pier and the vessel will allow for a decrease in the number of men 
on the pier and deck. The kind of cargo, of course, has a great 
influence. Bulk cargo is handled so largely by machinery that the 
size of the loading gang may be reduced to two or three men, this 
being particularly true of those commodities that do not have to be 
trimmed or moved in any way after they are put in the hold. Other 
kinds of cargo, such as railroad rails, may require a large amount of 
labor on the pier and deck and relatively little in the hold. Still 
others, such as cotton which is compressed in the hold by screwing, 
require an exceptionally large number of men in the hold. 

For these reasons it is impossible to state what is the proper size 
of a gang or how its members should be distributed. But it seems 
clear that there should be greater standardization than is found at 
present. Standards have been established only by those piers where 
the work varies but little, as where uniform package freight, such 
as sugar or case oil, is handled day after day. At other places there 
is almost no approach to standardization, and it will be found that 
the loading gangs of general cargo at different ports or even at 
adjacent piers differ greatly. It is also noticeable that few gangs 
work at top efficiency; there is almost always a congestion at one 
point and a slackening up of effort at others. If the stevedore would 
seriously attack the problem by keeping time study records of the 
speed of loading and discharging with gangs of different sizes and 
make-up, he would undoubtedly be surprised at the savings that 
could be made by standardization. 

Barnes gives the following concerning the hatch gangs. 

\/ In loading, the number of men in the hold is greater than on the 
y pier. In discharging, more men are needed on the pier. On the 

/ White Star piers, for instance, in discharging, 6 men of each 
hatch gang are worked in the hold, 5 to 6 on deck, and 12 on the 
pier. In loading, 6 of the pier men are transferred to the hold. 



But from pier to pier the numbers vary. On the Brooklyn piers 
14 men often constitute a hatch gang. 

Speaking generally, however, one can say that there are usually 
from 18 to 23 men to a hatch gang. There are usually from 9 to 
12 men on the pier — 2 or 3 "slingers," who fasten the slings around 

Organization of Hatch Gangs' 
Distribution of Men in Gangs at Nine Chelsea Piers 



Line 



White Star Line 

Cunard Line 

Red Star Line 

Atlantic Transport Line. 

French Line 

V American Line , 



Piers 



2 

3 
I 
I 
I 

I 



Men 

in 
gang 



Men working 



On the pier 



IT °" 

lori Load- deck 

me 
ing ^ 



23-24 
25-27 
23-24 
20-21 

23 i 
21-23 



12 
10-12 

12 
11-12 

12 
10-12 



6 

8-10 

6 

7-8 
6 

6-8 



S-6 

7 
5-6 

4 
5 
5 



In the hold 



Un- 
load- 
ing 



6 
8 
6 
4-6 
6 
6 



Load- 
ing 

12 
10-12 

12 

8-10 

12 

10 



Distribution of Men in 


Gangs 


AT Nine Hoboken Piers 






Piers 


Men 

in 
gang 


Men working 




On the pier 


On 
deck 


In the hold 




Un- 
load- 
ing 


Load- 
ing 

6-10 

6-10 

4-6 

4-8 

6-8 


Un- 
load- 
ing 

6-7 

6-7 

4 

4-6 

4-6 


Load- 
ing 


Hamburg-American Line . 
North German Lloyd Line 

Holland America Line 

Phoenix Line 


3 

3 

I 
I 

I 


18-24 
20-25 
16-18 
15-20 
18-22 


8-12 

10-14 

8-10 

6—10 


3-5 
3-5 
3-4 
3-5 
4-5 


8-10 
8-12 

4-8 
6-8 


Scandinavian Line 


8-10 


6-10 



the drafts, and the rest for trucking and tiering up ; from 4 to 6 on 
deck — including the gangway man, winchman, drum-end man, and 
*'hooker-on" ; and, including the headers or hold foremen, 6 or 8 men 
in the hold. 

Where the character of the cargo or restricted space on the piei 
necessitates high stacking — often 18 feet or even higher — additional 
men for tiering up are employed. In the old days when piers were 
small the stacks were frequently carried to the roof. But there is 

"Barnes, The Longshoremen, 32, 33. 



62 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



not so much need for high tiering on the large modern piers, such as 
those of the Chelsea Improvement. 

The congestion on some of the piers is often relieved by storing 
cargo on the ''farm." * One of the sights of the water front is this 
space thickly covered vi^ith heavy casks, bales, or logs, and with 
streets and narrow lanes giving access to the piers between the piles 

of freight. 

Considerations of economy often cause the number of men em- 
ployed on a particular job to be reduced below the point of safety. 
This is most often the case when the work is done by contracting 
stevedores. For instance, when only four men are employed on 
deck, the gangway man may have to act as hooker-on. Sometimes 
the same man is required to turn on the steam for a winch and to 
act as drum-end man. 

Another practice even more dangerous, is due to the effort to 
economize time. When a ship is being rushed, two or even three 
gangs are sometimes worked in the same hatch. How inevitably 
either of these forms of economy invites accidents will appear as the 
description of the work proceeds. ' 

There is throughout longshore work a swing and rhythm, as 
well as a shared responsibility. The gangs must work as a unit 
if the maximum amount is to be accomplished. Rhythm is attained 
as soon as the gangs are settled at the work. 

Unions. — The irregularity of employment in the longshore 
industry not only has brought a relatively poor type of workman 
into the trade but has caused an interchange of unskilled and semi- 
skilled laborers with other industries. In slack periods longshore- 
men would go into other work, and in busy periods, men engaged 
in other trades, or unemployed, would drift into the ranks of the 
longshoremen. All of this has made it difficult for the longshore- 
men to establish and maintain a strong union, especially in New 
York, where the history of attempts to unionize shows an almost 
continuous succession of failures. The situation at Boston has 



* According to tradition on the water front, the origin of this term is 

as follows: , . r . . . 

Walsh Brothers, once the most important stevedores of the port, had 
at one time a foreman named Morris Walsh, who had been a farmer in 
Ireland. Among the men he became known as the "farmer." His particular 
work was to supervise the storing of goods on the open space in front of 
the piers. Men used to say: "I'm going out to work with the farmer," or 
"on the farm." Gradually the open space in front of any pier became 
known as the "farm." 



V 



THE LONGSHOREMEN 



63 



always been more favorabk to the longshoremen and a relatively 
strong local union wae built up early. During the last few years, 
maintenance of locals at all ports, including New York, and of the 
national union has been rendered easier by the affiliation with the 
American Federation of Labor and by the scarcity of labor. Large 
initiation fees to the union are charged and must be paid by men 
who enter the trade, so that the members are now protected from the 

floating laborer. 

The present situation is described by the Director of the Marine 
and Dock Industrial Relations Division, United States Shipping 
Board, as follows: 

The International Longshoremen's Association was started on 
the Great Lakes some thirty years ago. It was at first restricted to 
men handling lumber. 

At the present time the association has grown to a point where 
it includes in its locals every type of labor connected with the 
loading and unloading of ships, and extends geographically over 
almost the entire country. Besides the men who actually load and 
unload vessels, it represents marine warehouse freight handlers, 
grain-elevator employees, dock and marine engineers, stationary dock 
hoisters, marine repair men and firemen, licensed tug men, tug fire- 
men and linemen, marine divers, helpers, tenders, and steam-pump 
operators, dredge engineers and cranemen, drill-boat workers, dredge 
firemen and laborers on dredge scows, marine pile drivers, lumber 
inspectors, tallymen and lumber handlers, top-deck men, cotton and 
tobacco screw men, general cargo deck laborers, and pool-deck hands 
and fishermen. 

Membership by Districts of International Longshoremen's 

Association 




Number 

of 
Locals 



Atlantic Coast 

South Atlantic and Gulf 

Great Lakes 

Pacific Coast 

Porto Rico 



94 

62 

i66 

54 
I 



Number 

of 
Members 



41,000 
18,600 
14,000 
22,000 



Total 377 



95,600 



Not given. 



it 



t! 



64 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



The foregoing table shows an association membership of 95,6cx), 
distributed among 377 local unions. 

The association includes Canada, as well as the United States, 
and is affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. As indi- 
cated above, it includes among its affiliated locals various unions of 
dock and even marine employees, which because of their large num- 
ber are not listed in this report. The president is T. V. O'Connor, of 
Buffalo. The secretary is John J. Joyce, also of Buffalo. 

Wages. — During the period of weakness of the union the at- 
tempts that were made to increase wages were unsuccessful. The 
hourly base rate for general cargo work on foreign vessels at New 
York dropped from 40 cents in 1865 to 30 cents in 1875 and to 25 
cents in 1890. From that point there were two increases to 33 cents 
in 1915, and within the last few years there have been several large 
increases to 80 cents. This wage enables unskilled, as well as skilled 
laborers, to earn $8 a day and, since employment is more regular 
than formerly, the longshoreman need not be greatly concerned 
over the high cost of living. 

All disputes over wages and other matters have, since 1917, been 
settled under the auspices of the National Adjustment Commission, 
which was formed in that year by representatives of the United 
States Shipping Board, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of Labor, 
the American Federation of Labor, the International Longshoremen's 
Association, and the principal shipping operators on the Atlantic and 
Gulf coasts. The operators on the Pacific Coast and the Great 
Lakes later adopted the agreement with some modifications. This 
commission not only made local awards but successfully sought to 
establish wage uniformity between the different sections. Tables 
that follow show the present wage rate for deep-sea and coastwise 
workers in the different sections. For the North Atlantic ports this 
rate is paid pier men and, in most instances, hold men; but at 
Norfolk and the South Atlantic ports the rate applies only to hold 
men and the late for pier men is lower. The Pacific Coast rates have 
been regulated very largely by independent action of the shipping 
operators and the longshore union, and are undergoing change at 
the present time. 

At all ports there are differentials for overtime; for work on 



fi (11 



'Marine and Dock Labor," 85, 86. The membership figures shown 
should be accepted with caution. 






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THE LONGSHOREMEN 



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',■ 



THE LONGSHOREMEN 



67 



holidays, during meal hours, and at night ; and for handling certain 
commodities. These differentials are indicated in the stevedore rates 
shown on page 20. 

Working Conditions and Their Betterment.— Now that 
wages have been advanced to such a point that the longshoreman 
can live comfortably or more than comfortably, it is noted that the 
members of the union are making more determined efforts to improve 
their working con^ition^. This is but natural and proper, consider- 
ing the conditions under which they have worked in the past. 
Unquestionably the life of the average longshoreman is hard. He is 
never sure of work for more than a few days in advance. He must 
lift and carry weights of from lOO to 300 pounds. He is exposed 
to the cold winter storms, the burning summer sun, and the suffo- 
cating heat of the holds. He is more subject than workmen in most 
industries to such diseases as pneumonia, tuberculosis, bronchitis, 
and rheumatism, and is frequently laid up by sickness. His is a 
particularly hazardous trade as shown by the insurance rates charged 
in this and other countries. Accidents are common because of defec- 
tive gear, lack of adequate safeguards, lack of supervision over the 
methods of work, and the necessity for handling dangerous articles. 
He may have to work continuously for long periods, or he may have 
to stand in rain or snow near the pier entrance waiting for work. 
Rest rooms, lunch rooms, and sanitary lavatories are almost 
unknown. 

It will be difficult to correct all these conditions ; but there should 
be no delay in making a start. The most necessary ref orm'^is that 
of regularizing the work. The creation of a central employment 
and paying bureau, modeled somewhat after the systems used at 
Liverpool, London, and elsewhere, is not impossible, though it is 
not feasible at present, owing to general opposition to the plan. 
Such a bureau would be of benefit to shipping operators and long- 
shoremen alike because the methods of hiring, paying off, and collec- 
tion of insurance would be greatly simplified. Beneficial results 
would also follow from the wider adoption of the weekly wage 
system, although it must be recognized that most stevedores must 
continue to pay their men on the hourly basis. The longshoremen 
are taking the matter of overwork into their own hands and arc 
refusing to carry heavy weights or to work continuously for long 
stretches. Moreover, there is a greater installation of machinery to 




MP 



II 



68 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



assist in the movement and transfer of freight. Protection against 
exposure to the elements and against accidents should be afforded 
in every possible way. The pier superintendent and stevedore must 
recognize that a system of work which permits the breakdown in 
youth of strong men and the crippling of others by accident and 
disease is wasteful, as well as criminal. It is as much to the advan- 
tage of the stevedore as to the factory owner to install safety appli- 
ances and to provide decent working conditions. The cost of sun 
shades and wind breaks for deck men, strong ropes for the falls, 
lighting of the hold, brakes on the winches, and similar protective 
measures are small in comparison with the value of the hundreds 
of lives annually sacrificed because of that conservatism in the 
shipping work which does not permit the adoption of modern methods. 
National Adjustment Commission Award. — In conclusion 
of this chapter the National Adjustment Commission's award of 
October 3, 1918, is here added as an example of the nature of agree- 
ments between longshoremen and steamship companies. It is under- 
stood, of course, that this agreement has since been modified, par- 
ticularly as to rates of pay and some details. The object in 
introducing it here is to show the general terms of this and similar 
agreements with the admonition to look up the last agreement for 
any working information. 

NATIONAL ADJUSTMENT COMMISSION 

New York, N. Y., October 3, 1918. 

The International Longshoremen's 
Association and Affiliated Locals 
at ports of New York; Boston; 
Baltimore; Norfolk and New- 
port News. 

Deep-water Steamship Companies 
and Stevedores representing the 
above ports. 

Readjustment of wages and work- 
ing conditions of longshore labor 
at the above mentioned ports, 
submitted under the National 
Adjustment Commission agree- 
ment. 



Petitioning Parties: 



Other Parties Interested; 



Subject: 



THE LONGSHOREMEN 

Award 



69 



The question of readjustment of wages and working conditions of 
longshore labor in connection with deep-water vessels at the ports of 
New York, Boston, Baltimore, Norfolk, and Newport News was 
considered by the National Adjustment Commission at meetings 
convening at New York City, September 30, 1918, and reconvening 
Tuesday, October 1, 1918, and October 2, 1918, and after hearing 
the parties ancf their testimony the Commission awards, as follows : 

First— The basic working day of eight (8) hours with Satur- 
day half holiday, is hereby established. 

Second.— On general cargo from 8 a. m. to 12 o'clock noon, of 
all week days, and from 1 to 5 p. m. on all week days, exclusive of 
Saturday, men shall receive sixty-five cents (65c) an hour. 

Third, — All other time shall be counted and paid for at the rate 
of one dollar ($1) per hour. 

Fourth.— When men are ordered out for work beginning Sunday 
morning, they shall be hired in regular gangs before 5 p. m. on the 
Saturday preceding. 

Fifth. — When men are ordered out to work and do not start, 
except when the men refuse to start owing to weather conditions, 
the men shall be paid for two (2) hours at the prevailing rate. 

Sixth.—A\\ differentials in rates of pay shall be maintained 
according to the agreements now in force or expiring in the various 
ports. 

Seventh. — Except as herein otherwise provided, all other terms 
and conditions at the several ports mentioned shall remain as pro- 
vided by the several agreements now in force or expiring at each port. 

Eighth. — This award shall become effective for the ports of New 
York, Boston, Baltimore, Norfolk, and Newport News, as of October 
1, 1918, and shall remain in effect until and including September 
30, 1919, unless the National Adjustment Commission of its own 
motion, upon grounds of National policy, shall sooner reopen and 
modify the terms thereof. 

(Signed) John G. Palfrey, representing Shipping Board, 

Acting Chairman, 

Edward J. Barber, representing Deepwater S. S. 
Employers, 

T. V. O'Connor, representing I. L. A. 

John R. McLane, representing War Department. 



70 



I 



U 



I 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 

Memorandum of Agreement 



This agreement, made and entered into by and between the 
undersigned deep-water steamship lines and contracting 
STEVEDORES of the PoFt of Greater New York and vicinity, as party 
of the first part, and The International Longshoremen's Asso- 
ciation and its affiliated locals, as party of the second part — 
is meant to cover the loading and unloading of ships and the 
bunkering of same in the Port of Greater New York and vicinity, 
in accordance with the award of the National Adjustment Com- 
mission, dated New York, October 3, 1918, copy of which is attached 
hereto. 

1. Members of the party of the second part to have the prefer- 
ence of all work pertaining to the rigging up of the ships and coaling 
of same as is done at the present time, and the discharging and load- 
ing of all cargoes under the following terms and conditions: 

Wage Scale 

2. (a) The basic working day of eight (8) hours with Satur- 
day half holiday, is hereby established. 

(b) On general cargo from 8 a. m. to 12 o'clock noon, of all 
week days, and from 1 to 5 p. m. on all week days, exclusive of 
Saturday, men shall receive sixty-five cents (65c) an hour. 

(c) All other time shall be counted and paid for at the rate of 
one dollar ($1) per hour. 

(d) Legal Holidays are : New Year's Day, Lincoln's Birthday, 
Washington's Birthday, Good Friday on the Jersey Shore, Decora- 
tion Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Election Day, 
Thanksgiving, Christmas, and such other National or State holidays 
as may be appointed by Executive Authority. 

(e) Men employed on bulk cargo, ballast, and all coal cargoes, 
including loading and trimming coal for a steamer's own bunker pur- 
poses, to receive seventy cents (70c) per hour between the hours of 
8 A. m. and 12 o'clock noon, and from 1 to 5 p. m., except Saturday, 
when the workday shall be from 8 a. m. to 12 o'clock noon. All other 
time to be considered as overtime and paid for at one dollar and five 
cents ($1.05) per hour. 

(f) Men are to work any night of the week or Sunday when 
required. Work performed on Saturday night only to finish ship for 
sailing Sunday, or to handle mail or baggage. 



!r 



THE LONGSHOREMEN 71 

(g) Only baggage and mail to be handled on Labor Day, at one 
dollar ($1) per hour. 

3. (a) When men are handling explosives down the Bay 
the following scale to apply: 



8 
I 



a. 
p. 



M. to 
M. to 



icon \ 
. M. 3 



12 noon 
5 P 



1 A. M. to 6 A. M. 
7 A. M. to 8 A. M. 

5 P. M. to 6 P. M. 

7 P. M. to 12 midn't 

6 A. M. to 7 A. M. 

Noon to I p. M. 

6 p. M. to 7 p. M. 

12 midn't to i a. m. 



Day Work 
per hour 



$1.30. 



.$2. 



00. 



$2.60. 



Holidays, Sunday and 

Afternoon Saturday 

per hour 



$2.oo 



$2.00 



$2.60 



Time to start from the time of leaving pier until the time of re- 
turn to pier. Men to supply their own meals, but fifty cents (50c) 
per meal to be allowed by the employers. 

(b) Explosives such as are customarily handled down the Bay 
when handled at any pier, shall be paid for double time. If dis- 
pute arises as to what explosives are, it shall be settled by the Bureau 
of Explosives, whose decision shall be final and accepted by both 
sides. 

(c) That the rates in Class 2 are to apply on general cargo 
of every description, including barrel oil when part of general cargo. 

Kerosene, gasoline and naphtha in cases, when loaded by case oil 
gangs, or with a fly, to pay eighty-five cents (85c) per hour. All 
other time to be one dollar and twenty-five cents ($1.25) per hour. 

4. Every effort will be made to arrange for the men to receive 
their wages at a locality as convenient as possible to the place at 
which they have performed the work. 

5. (a) When men are ordered out for work beginning Sunday 
morning, they shall be hired in regular gangs before 5 p. m. on 
the Saturday preceding. 

(b) When men are ordered out to work and do not start, 
EXCEPT when the men refuse to start owing to weather conditions, 
the men shall be paid for two (2) hours at the prevailing rate. 

6. The stevedore is to hire the men. No hiring to be done by 
hatch bosses, but the stevedore may authorize the under foreman 
to do so. 



» 






72 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



7. When men are knocked off work fifteen minutes after the 
hour or later they are to be paid for one-half hour. If they knock 
off forty-five minutes after the hour they are to be paid for one 
hour. 

8. When it would take more than ten minutes to replace the 
hatch covers the gangs are to be knocked off ten minutes before 
quitting time. 

9. No chemicals improperly packed or in any but first-class 
shipping condition are to be accepted or loaded on board ship. If 
any question arises regarding the condition of this class of cargo, the 
matter to be left to the proper authority, whose decision will be 
final. 

10. If a ship has been on fire or ashore, all cargo damaged by 
either fire or water is to be handled at the rates under clause 3, but 
sound cargo in a separate compartment is to be handled at the rates 
under clause 2. When rubbers are required for handling wet cargo 
or explosives, or leather hand pads or gloves for barb wire, they 
shall be provided by the stevedore or company. 

11. The steamer is to supply suitable protection for men work- 
ing on deck in bad weather. 

12. It is expressly understood and agreed that in case of dispute, 
no stoppage of work shall occur under any circumstances, and that 
any dispute arising under this agreement which cannot be imme- 
diately settled by arbitration shall be referred to the Local Adjust- 
ment Commission, appointed by the authorities in Washington, and 
if the matter cannot be adjusted by said Commission, it shall be re- 
ferred to the National Adjustment Commission in Washington, 
whose decision shall be final. 

13. There shall be no beer or other intoxicating liquor brought 
upon the property of the party of the first part. For a violation of 
this clause the guilty party may be discharged and given no further 
employment by the party of the first part. It is clearly agreed that 
no men are to be allowed to leave the pier during working hours for 
the purpose of obtaining drink, or for any purpose whatever except 
with the express permission of the foreman stevedore in charge. 
The steamship companies agree to supply proper drinking water on 
pier, also adequate and cleanly toilet facilities. 

14. The party of the second part will not try to uphold incom- 
petency, shirking of work, pilfering or poaching of cargo ; any man 
guilty of the above offenses shall be dealt with as the party of the 
first part sees fit, or as the circumstances may require. If any 
man is convicted of theft, he shall be expelled from the union. 






! 



THE LONGSHOREMEN 



73 



15. There shall be no discrimination by the party of the first 
part against any member of the party of the second part, nor shall 
the party of the second part discriminate against the party of the 
first part. 

16. All conditions of labor, including the number of men in 
holds for loading and discharging, not herein mentioned, to remain 
as at present. 

17. When the party of the second part cannot furnish a suffi- 
cient number of men to perform the work in a satisfactory manner, 
then the party of the first part may employ such other men as are 
available. 

18. Men working on piers on the North and East Rivers above 
Seventy-fifth Street, or on piers at Weehawken, West New York, 
Yonkers, Long Island City, Staten Island, and Bayonne to receive' 
not more than sixty-five cents (65c) per day to cover time and ex- 
penses going to and from place of employment, it being understood 
that the discretion as to the actual traveling time required by the 
man in each instance shall be left in the hands of the employer. 

19. A copy of this agreement to be filed with the War Depart- 
ment, United States Shipping Board, and National Adjustment 
Commission, at Washington, D. C. 

20. This agreement will go into effect October 1, 1918, and 
will remain in full force and effect until September 30, 1919, unless 
the National Adjustment Commission of its own motion, upon 
grounds of National policy, shall sooner reopen and modify the 
terms thereon. 

Signed for Employers. 

Signed for International Longshoremen's Association. 

REFERENCES 

Barnes, C. B., The Longshoremen, The Survey Association, New 
York, 1915. 

"Report of the Chairman of the National Adjustment Commission for 

1917- Government Printing Office. 
"Marine and Dock Labor." Report of the Director of the Marine and 

Dock Industrial Relations Division, United States Shipping Board. 

Cjovernment Printing Office, 1919. 
Taylor, Thomas R. "Stowag e of Ship Cargoes. 

'Miscellaneous Series No. 92, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Com- 
merce. Government Printing Office, 1920. i^omesuc «.om- 



'I 






CHAPTER V 

ACCOUNTING AND PAPER WORK* 

Nearly every one of our four million officers and men in the 
World War learned what the army term "paper work" (P.W.) 
means. It is a terse expression in any organization for all the slips, 
reports, forms, receipts, and other papers that are necessary to keep 
an orderly record and account of the business. The paper work on 
a wharf handling millions of dollars of merchandise is very impor- 
tant. To do it justice would require at least a volume of the size 
of this one. Such a work has yet to be written. This chapter will 
endeavor to show the chief forms and the reasons for them. 



Steamship Accounting 

The wharf paper work must be in harmony with the accounting 
system of the line and, therefore, a knowledge of the outstanding 
features of that system is necessary on the wharf. 

Steamship accounting is based upon "the voyage account" and 
the "general expense account." The former is similar to the con- 
tract or job account in constructing companies such as elevator 
builders, engineering contractors, etc. The general expense account 
contains those items that cannot be assigned as part of the expense 
of carrying out a particular contract. Figures 3 and 4 illustrate the 
divisions without very much explanation. 

The Voyage Account.— The accounting begins with the voyage, 
as this adventure, with others, is the reason for being in business. 
The receipts from each voyage, less the expenses for that voyage, 
determine if the voyage was a profitable venture. Every item of 
receipt or expense that can be logically assigned to a particular 
voyage is put into the voyage account. There are many expenses, 
however, that go on just the same regardless of whether this par- 



'By R. S. MacElwee. 



74 



«. 




Fig. 3. — VOYAGE account. 
75 



• 



76 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



I ■ 



ticular voyage took place or not. At the end of the year the other- 
than-voyage expense must be deducted from total voyage profits to 
show the net earnings of the steamship enterprise. 
It will be noted : 

1. A "voyage" is out and back, a "round voyage." 

2. Receipts are fairly simple: passenger, freight, mail, wine 
(smokmg room, etc.), sundries. 

3- Disbursements are subdivided into many items, and each 
item is given a number that is shown in both margins. The main 
headings for expenses are Passenger, Freight, and Steamship. 

4. Under "Freight" are several important accounts that come 
under the wharf superintendent, while the steamship charges are 
under the marine superintendent. Items 31 to 36 are in connection 
with "Loading and discharging cargo" ; also Nos. 37, 38, 39, 40, 
4S and 46. These items are all quite obvious, yet it is sometimes 
difficult to debit the correct account with some unusual item of 
expense. 

Under "Expenses not apportioned to voyage accounts" (Fig. 
4), the items are assigned numbers above 100. The groups are: 
Salaries of officers and clerks. Office expenses. Advertising, Wharf 
expenses, and Lay-up expenses. 

Common office expenses are prorated among the various branch 
offices according to an agreed schedule ; that is, in proportion to the 
amount of business done by each office. 

Papers for Inbound Freight.— As the ship must first dis- 
charge its freight before loading, it is logical to begin with inbound 
(at Atlantic ports of the United States, westbound) freight. 

Forms of the International Mercantile Marine Company from 
both the Philadelphia and New York offices are used as fairly 
representative examples. 

Tally Slip,— Goods landed from the ship for eventual delivery 
to consignees or received at the wharf must be measured and counted. 
There are two tally slips for this purpose: one for the delivery 
clerk's office (Fig. 5), and one for the receiving clerk's office 
(Fig. 6). The checkers or tally clerks measure the packages, 
enter marks, and tally the packages of shipments. In the case of 
large shipments in bags, barrels, etc., there may be several hundred 
pieces in one shipment. The tally clerk marks up the score by 
making four vertical strokes and one across, forming groups of five. 



I 



»TTl 



fcr 



I 



-^*^.2.. 



Expenses Not Apportioned to Voyage Accounts 

DURING MONTH OF 




Fig. 4.— general expense, other than voyage. 

77 



1/ 



!fi 



78 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



In the tase of mixed shipments, or when two or three packages are 
landed together, figures are entered on the slip. The general arrange- 
ment of this important piece of paper is seen from the illustrations. 



°'*« 1. M. M. CO. WHARF 


-t9 


New York. 
To DELIVERY CLERK: 
Steamer 

Lighter 


Com'ncd 


Finished 




MARKS 


PACKAGBS 


















^^ ' .._J 






.1 



I 



Fig. 5 



'"^ 1. M. M. CO. WHARF 


-19 




New York. 


To 'RECEIVING CLERK: 
Steamer . 


Com'ncd „ 


Liehter . 


Finished 


MARKS ( PACKAGES | 


























Fig. 6. — tally slips. 
Lighter Tally Sheet.— Goods discharged from ship to lighter are 
tallied on a more elaborate sheet (Fig. 7). This sheet shows 
from what steamer discharged, the date, the marks, tallies and 
totals, to what lighter delivered, and by whom tallied. 



\l 



ACCOUNTING AND PAPER WORK 79 

The Discharging Receipt Book. — While at sea the pursers make 
up the discharging receipt book from the manifest and bills of 
lading. This is a book of two hundred numbered pages of legal cap 
size. One book is necessary for each port at which cargo is dis- 



INTERNATIONAL MERCANl 


ILE/ 

York. 


AARINE LINES. 






Ex. 


■Uew 


^Q/*; 


^_ 




-r 




JMARK 










|Total 


• 
1 
























52 






















11 






















-^ — 















































n 




















=^"=" 


=^~" 


W 
















































f PI — ■ 
























I 

"1 
























S3 

^-a 






















••5 
^5 
























m 
























ss 

!-z 






















Vi 
























- It 
























■ 






















•1 
3 





























































































Jo Lighter 

Tallied hy 
When 2 or more packaces arc taken at a time. Enter the Quantity In Pleura*. 

Score only Single Packages. 
When Bales of Hides. &c.. or Cases, are taken. Enter Numbers of each Package. 



Fig. 7. — lighter tally sheet. 

charged, for the guidance of the delivery clerk. The cover bears 
the serial number of the book, the name of the steamship, the port 
of loading, and the date of arrival. 

Each sheet (Fig. 8) should carry one entry only. Small 
consignments are entered two and sometimes three to the page. The 
page shows the line, the steamer, the consignee, the marks, and the 
bill-of -lading number. The body of the sheet has the number of 



i! 



80 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



packages in words and in figures filled in when it reaches the delivery 
clerk. When delivery is accomplished, the date and the cart or 
lighter to which delivery is made are entered, and the truckman or 
other authorized person taking delivery signs for the goods in the 
last column. All additional remarks, such as short shipment, 
damages, goods sent to appraiser's stores, consignment sent to gen- 
eral order stores, etc., are noted on the page under the entry as they 



200 



RECEIVED in good order tronx. 



.Line Ex. S. S. 



by Messrs. 



MARKS 



-the following goods: 



Bill Lading No 



C*rl or 
Liglner 



N««bcr of packsgtt in vor<t 



No. Pt(t. 

in tigurtt 



SI(nMurt 



Fig. 8. — page 200 from the discharging receipt book. 

occur. It should be possible to look at the discharging receipt book 
at any time and know the status of every consignment from a given 
steamer. 

The discharging receipt book record, however, is not sufficient. 
There are many forms in connection with it that cover many things 
that may occur in connection with a shipment. 

Records of Damaged Cargo. — One of the first irregularities 
to be noted are damages to cargo. Careful record of this is impor- 
tant because of claims. Damages are usually detected upon landing 
by the tallyman, whereupon a certificate of goods landed in dam- 
aged or "ullaged" condition is made out and signed by the master or 
chief mate. Figure 9 is a sample from the Saluda^ properly filled 
out. This form gives the port, date, and the statement : "This is to 
certify that the following packages were landed from on board the 
Saluda in ullaged condition." Then follows the statement noting 
B/L number, marks, and a statement of the nature of the damage. 
This form is executed in triplicate, of which two copies are retained 
at the office and one sent to the claims department of the head office. 



Philadelphia, 8/29A» 



19 



This is to certify that the following packages were landed 



from on board sjs &<awa_ 



in ullaged condition. 



bA 



1.2^11 Varloua numbar bales wool wrappara torn-S balea (K^ landad In bt^lk 



^,Af\9, CB 



4A1 hugK gtngar^ old baga^ all more or leaa torn part, nut, 



quantity of loose root landed in bulk. 



ms 



1 case mustard, 6 bottles broken. 



Signed 



G. Kegeleers, 
C'hlel' Mate. 



Fig. 9. — ^SHip officer's report of damaged cargo. 






• 


^MKlltP - S*LW*_._ 


REPORT OF DAMAGED CARGO. 

V«]r. . Arrived PWtaiWpWi. .•'^«/»» . n . 




1.1a 


Oi^ir- 


■«te 


■.^ 


'-taf- 


»^ 


■Mn.rD.MC. 


VhMiHirf 






liSi 


11 Vortoua 


Variau* 




Nu««>er 


ball s wool 


Wrappen torn 


S balos 


landed Ir. bulk (K) 




>.«,!" 


IS 


•/w 


461 bi es t 


ing«r root 


old bar* mil nor i or leni 
Of Inoae root 1 intfod In 


torn part out quantity 

bulk. 




6 


H. Kollecg fc Sn 1 IKS 




1 CI se 1 ustKrd 


6 bottloa brokan 


























































































































































anwd s. A 


ScKall, 


Dock Supl. 






^ 






N>_-J 


I > 


-^-^ 


«••••">» ll»l'-»U, WW TVTng-Crirjr: 1 





Fig. io. — DOCK superintendent's or receiving clerk's report of 

damaged cargo. 

8i 



82 



WHARF MANAGEiMENT 



Report of Damaged Cargo. — The receiving clerk's office on a 
special form (Fig. lo) makes out its own report of the damages to 
cargo ; usually the entries include the same information as that given 
by the ship's officer. This report is signed by the receiving clerk 



INTERNATIONAL MERCANTILE MARINE LINES 

American Lm* Red Star Line 

Atlantic Transport Line White Star 

Panama Pacific Line 

SPECIAL DAMAGE REPORT 



x% 



V«f. 



.14.. 



.|M 



McrchaadiM - 



What WM Um oact Siowag*? 

Was Coaapartineiit under Lock? 

Wat McrchandMe Ralerrad to ItnmaHiately AvaiUbk oa Opaai^ ol HalcliM?. 
Wkal Cargo waa alowod around it, and wat any Cargo itowod oa top of k? . . 



At what Tmm w«r* Hatchet OptnadT .. 

At what Tim* did Ditchargiac Bagin? 

At what TuM wat Damage Ditcovarcd 7 

Wat Hatch Laf t Open at any time Unprotoctod, if no, explain wky 7 . 

Name of Man who Ditcovered Damage 

Naoie of Forcnum in Charge of Hatch 

Name* of Men Worldag in Hatch 



Name of Officer on Watch <. 

Name of Official to whom Damage was Reported 

In your opinion did Lott or Damage eccnr during the '■"•''■'g oo voyage or after arrival of tteamw? 



Remarkt and Particular* of Laaa or Damage? . 



NoL 

New York.. 



■ Ch e ii aa Piwa. 



■ 1»1 



Chief Omk. 

Sv't- 

Otncflf • 



Fig. II. — SPECIAL report of unusual or extensive damage or 

IN case of excessive claims. 

and by the wharf superintendent. It is executed in triplicate: one 
copy to Liverpool, or port of departure of merchandise, one to the 
office file, and one to the admiralty surveyor (insurance adjuster). 
Special Damage Report. — In cases of unusual and extensive 
damage, or excessive claims, a special report (Fig. ii) is required 
from the ship's officers and wharf superintendent. It also is signed 



; 



\ 



ACCOUNTING AND PAPER WORK 



83 



by the clerk making the investigation. The question sheet covers 
pertinent contributory evidence. It includes the name of the ship, 
the voyage, the B/L number, marks, date arrived in port, the nature 
of the merchandise, the consignee, then the questions : What was the 
exact stowage*? Was the compartment under lock (for pilferage)? 
Was merchandise referred to immediately available on opening of 



r 



m£s.s. 

INTERNATIONAL MERCANTILE MARINE LINES 

ATLANTIC TRANCPONT UNB OOM IW IO M UMB kCTLAMO UHK 

*'HrW >TAN-OOtMM0M 

EXCESS 



nCO (TAN UNC WHTTB STAR LMK 

REPORT OF CARGO SHORT AND IN 



INSTRUCTIONS TO DEUVERY CtXRICS. 
A* iom M ttmUt aha detrcfy of Inwwd cufo. Ai. bUnl thouid he filled am »iHi pMliciikit. atwd b, A* WW d-t 
wd MM 10 INWARD FREIGHT DEPARTMENT. I r B«-A... NFW vnpif ^^ 



> INWARD FREIGHT DEPARTMENT. 1 1 Bi<>«iw«,, NEW YORK. 



Steamship. 



Voy. 



arrived New York, . 



191 





MEMORANDUM OF CARGO SHORT EX. PREVIOUS STEAMERS 
AND OUT-TURNED FROM ABOVE STEAMER 




Fig. 12. — "over and short landed" form. 



hatches? What cargo was stowed around it, and was any cargo 
stowed on top of it ? At what time were hatches opened ? At what 
time did discharging begin ? At what time was damage discovered ? 
Was hatch left open at any time unprotected; if so, explain why? 
Name of man who discovered damage. Names of men working in 
hatch. Name of officer on watch. Name of official to whom dam- 
age was reported. In your opinion did loss or damage occur during 
the loading, on voyage, or after arrival of steamer? Remarks and 
particulars of loss or damage. 

Over and Short Landed. — Another irregularity after damage 
is "short landed" or missing packages, or more packages landed than 



84 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



shown In the manifest or discharging receipt book. With the present 
congestion of wharves the world over, it is very easy for some of the 
packages of a shipment to be put on to the wrong steamer. Out of 
the 530 barrels of mackerel shipped to S. H. Levins' Sons, there 
was one barrel missing at Philadelphia. In Buenos Aires the delivery 
clerk may find that he has a barrel of mackerel, Mark B, landed from 
a vessel for which he has no papers and no record. The delivery 
clerk at Philadelphia notifies the port of loading (Liverpool) that 
he is "short," the delivery clerk at Buenos Aires notifies Liverpool 
that he has a barrel of mackerel "over." In due time he is notified 
to ship the barrel to Philadelphia on the next available steamer of 
the line or back to Liverpool for transshipment. 

On some future form (Fig. 12) at the bottom of the page there 
will be noted that one barrel of mackerel "short" on the steamer 

Saluda, voyage No. , has arrived. Needless to say, the mackerel 

will not have become any better in the meantime and Messrs. S. H. 
Levins' Sons will have long since entered a damage claim for the 
merchandise. The "over and short landed" form is made out in 
triplicate, one copy is retained, one sent to the claims department, 
head office (New York), and one to the port at which the merchan- 
dise was loaded (Liverpool). The form is signed by the delivery 
clerk and the wharf superintendent. 

The same company in New York uses a form, "Report of Cargo 
Short and in Excess," which bears the printing, "Instructions to 
Delivery Clerks. As soon as possible after delivery of inward 
cargo, this blank should be filled out with particulars, signed by the 
wharf clerk, and sent to Inward Freight Department, 1 1 Broadway, 
New York." 

Monthly Report of Cargo in Excess (over) Bill of Lading Quan- 
tity. — The report made at the time the vessel is discharged is not 
sufficient for all purposes. Over or in-excess cargo accumulates 
and must be disposed of in order to make room on the wharves and 
in warehouses. An excellent example of what may happen when 
no final disposition of such merchandise can be made is given by the 
Port of Havana Docks Company, at Havana, Cuba. In this case 
all goods not claimed and delivered were sent to storage in the bulk- 
head warehouses. The customs regulations require that the goods be 
held six months and, if not claimed, sold at auction to cover cus- 
toms and storage charges. The customs auctioneer had followed the 



ACCOUNTING AND PAPER WORK 



$ 



85 



practice of refusing sale if the bids did not cover these charges. All 
merchandise is more or less perishable and it is conceivable that our 
barrel of mackerel cited above would not be worth the duty and six 
months' storage, and would not be sold. Thus had accumulated at 
Havana such odds and ends until one-seventh of the total valuable 
floor space of the terminal was taken up by them and withheld 
from active use. The manager had a monthly report of seventy-one 
such sheets as Figure 13. 



o 



/ij^ 



tj«i 



WESTBOUN D FREIGHT D EPARTMENT 
Report of Cargo in excess Bill of Lading: quantity 

ex Steafflert from for Month endint |9I 

>nd Including all iWcrctuindije on Dock or in Warehouse not disposed of to date 



.STEAM F.R 



utnu 



H na 



HBkCHANDISE 



■ear 



KBHAIIKS AMD 

FlM&L DisrosrT>oi> 







1 — 1 




1 = -— 1 


r — 1 




■ — ■■ 


























Tm 

























Fig. 13. — REPORT OF EXCESS CARGO. 

It will be noted that the monthly report will require a separate 
sheet for each foreign port. The original goes to the westbound 
freight department, one copy to foreign port, and one is retained. 
This report serves two purposes : it indicates at a glance the amount 
of the accumulation of merchandise and acts as a check on previous 
reports that may be easily scanned. 

Notice to Remove Merchandise. — One of the foundation 
principles of any well-managed wharf is that merchandise must be 
kept moving and must not be permitted to remain on the wharf 
longer than is necessary to assemble it for customs inspection and 
delivery to consignee. If goods are permitted to remain on the 
wharf they add to the congestion and confusion that is already too 
costly. One of the principal causes of the complete breakdown of the 



86 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



ACCOUNTING AND PAPER WORK 



87 



Port of Havana, Cuba, in 1920, was the fact that on all privately 
owned wharves the storage rates were very low and calculated 
monthly. It was much cheaper for a merchant to use the wharves for 
the storage of his merchandise than to provide his own warehouse. 



A*^ 



// 



W a. Fera U 



International Mcrcantilc Marine Lines 



AMCmCAN UNK 

ATLANTIC TRANtPORT UNK 

DOMINION UNK 



WMITK STAR-OOMINION LINK 



LKTLANO LINK 

NKD aitAR UNK 

WHITE STAN UNK 



mm. «. s.. 



New York,. 



II BROADWAY 
191 



FINAL NOTICE 



Dear Sin: 



Please note that the following Merchandise for your ic- j 
count, ex S. S. arrived w 

D 

in. . atill remains on pier No North River (Chelsea Piers.) %. 



B/LNa 



Marks 



No. Packages 



Merchandise g- 

5. 

I 



9- 



In accordance with custom and to make room for incoming § 

e 



cargo, we must ask that you remove same before TEN A. M. 

191..., otherwise we shall be obliged to store 

.■une at your risk and expense, and this without further notice. 
Your prompt attention to the above will greatly oblige, 
Yours truly. 



_ TBLCrNONBi 
■•WlIN* OnCCM MOO 



3 
8 

6 

B* 

D 
O 



INWARD FREIGHT DEPARTMENT 1 

o 

P«r vj 



Fig. 14. — FINAL REMOVAL NOTICE. 

Even if a punitive wharfage rate after forty-eight hours should be 
assessed, in order to force the consignee to take delivery of his 
goods, there are always odds and ends of in-excess and unclaimed 
shipments that must be removed to some warehouse to clear the 
wharves for working the ships. Therefore it is a better policy, now 
fairly general, for the wharf superintendent to remove from the 



wharf to warehouses all merchandise remaining after forty-eight 
hours. The expense of cartage, etc., is charged to the merchandise 
and is paid by the consignee before receiving the goods. 

The delivery clerk sends to the consignee a notice as indicated by 
Figure 14. 



/?*^. / 2. 



WB Faria 7* 



BMM 



INTERNATIONAL MERCANTILE MARINE LINES 

AMERICAN LINE PANAMA PACIFIC UNE RED STAR LINE 

ATLANTIC TRANSPORT LINE WHITE STAR LINE 

LEVLAND LINE WHITE STAR-DOMINION LINE 

STORAGE ORDER 



Pier , North River, N. Y. 

191 

File: S. S. 

Truckmen 



Warehouse 



At the risk and expense of owners please 



transfer to 
store in 



Warehouse at 



merchandise as follows. 



.Marks and Numbers . 



ex S.S.. 



. Voy. B/L ; Arrived . 



Said merchandise to be stored in name as shown on Custom House 

permit as follows: 

and Warehouse receipt sent to party named immediately. 

INWARD FREIGHT DEPARTMENT 



Copy I* TnickNMii 
WartbovM 

oac.. II Bf«w»*r 



Fig. 15. — STORAGE ORDER TO TRUCKING COMPANY TO TRANSFER 
MERCHANDISE FROM WHARF TO PUBLIC WAREHOUSE. 

Storage Order, — At the expiration of the stated period, in fact 
sometimes in advance of the exact hour, to save time, a storage order 
(Fig. 15) is issued to a trucking company, naming the warehouse 
with the statement: 



88 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



At the risk and expense of owners please transfer to and store 

in warehouse at , merchandise as follows: 

marks and numbers, ; ex S. S ; voyage' 

' ^* L ; Arrived Said 

merchandise to be stored in name as shown on customhouse permit 

as follows : and warehouse receipt sent to party named 

immediately. Inward Freight Department. 



Pier No N. R. 



New York,. 



.I9_ 



Goods sent to General Order Store 




Fig. I 6. 



/<«^ 



CARGO SENT ON GENERAL ORDER. 

Steamship. _galud& 



_V«y. 



9/2_ 

Arrived Philadelphia. 8/12/19 



.l%9 
19 



BILL. 



CONSMNBa. 



MARKa. 






NUMBeas. 



■A. k 



PACKAOBS. 



IS etska 



Char 



OS Tlttoil, R9CBivln; Clerk 




ftchftll. 3flcJi-S iipt. 



WHERC 
STOKBa 



>alin oil 



8/25/19 
Ltlsntle sltoree. 



UEN 

piLEa 



B 
Fig. 1 6.— record of cargo sent to general order stores. 

Four copies are made: one to truckman, one to warehouse, one to 
office, one retained at pier. Entry is made in the discharging receipt 
book that the merchandise has been sent to general-order warehouse 
so and so. 

List of Goods Sent to General Order Store.— In addition to the 



ACCOUNTING AND PAPER WORK 



89 



entry in the discharging receipt book and the brief mention of the 
marks and numbers in the storage order, a list of the merchandise 
in some detail is necessary as a full record of their disposition. This 
list is made out in triplicate : one copy to Liverpool, one to claims 
department, and one to office file (Figs. i6a and i6b). 



M—Wt. 

NOTICE OF CLAIM FOR FREIGHT 



Philadelphia. 



_-.I91. 



Hon. 



Collector of Cuttomi, PhiUdtlphti. Pa, 



Sir: 



You will please take notice that the undersigned 
have a lien for freight and charges on the following described 
goods and merchandise, now in your possession, viz > 
The packages are as follows : 

The marks, numbers, and brands are as follows : 

The said goods and merchandise were imported per 
Steamship _ 



from _ 

were entered 



They arrived.. 



and consigned to 

They are now at 



The amount claimed for freight and charges is 

T»H MItct li Mrvcd l> p.r.««ac< of Act of Codckm .ppnv.4 May 2i«i. UM •■■« T«m. 
«»U* Octobir 2i. ISM. 

Atlantic Transport Co. 



PO«T or PBILADIfLrKIA. 

', '^ ■ • «g<"» O' ATtANTIC TRANSroKT Co.. 

ctiimaul ID thit ci»*. do (olcnml, afitm tbtt the matter and tbinga set forth ia the 
annexed notice are true, and that the som claimed therein it due, aud unpaid and waa 
a subaiit JDg heo upon the goodi described at the time the ume pataed into the custody 
of the coitom officers. 



Afirmed to and subscribed to before me this . 



daj of.. 



.1* 



Itepaty collrctar. 



Fig. 17. — LIEN NOTICE TO THE COLLECTOR OF CUSTOMS. 

Customs Lien Notice.— When the line has not been paid freight or 
other expenses, such as cartage to general stores and warehouse 
charges, and the goods have not been cleared through the customs, 
the delivery clerk notifies the customs not to release the merchandise 
to the consignee until such charges have been paid. Under the bill- 



\il 



90 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



of-lading contract the steamship company reserves the right of hold- 
ing the merchandise until its claims have been paid. The lien notice 
(Fig. 17) reads as follows: 

Sir: You will please take notice that the undersigned have a 
lien for freight and charges on the following described goods and 
merchandise, now in your possession, viz.: The packages are as 
follows : 

The marks, numbers, and brands are as follows : 

The said goods and merchandise were imported per Steamship 

^rom They arrived 

» were entered , and consigned to 

They are now at The amount claimed 

for freight and charges is This notice is 

served in pursuance of Act of Congress approved May 21, 1896, and 
Treas. Reg., dated October 2, 1896. Signed, Atlantic Transport 
Company. 

}^ '" » agent of Atlantic Transport Company, 

claimant in this case, do solemnly affirm that the matter and things 
set forth in the annexed notice are true, and that the sum claimed 
therein is due and unpaid, and was a subsisting lien upon the goods 
described, at the time the same passed into the custody of the custom 
officers. Affirmed to and subscribed to before me this 
day of 192 Signed, Deputy Collector '. 

Note that this document must be sworn to before a deputy 
collector. The form is executed in duplicate : one copy to the custom- 
house and one retained. 

These, then, are the most important papers connected with in- 
bound freight and handled by the delivery clerk's office. 

Delivery Order.— When all freight charges and formalities have 
been taken care of the truckman is given a delivery order addressed 

to the delivery clerk saying: "Deliver to order of the 

following merchandise from above-named steamer at Pier No 

(marks and numbers) " This form (Fig. 18) is a pass for 

the truckman with the merchandise to go past the wharf gates. Only 
one copy is necessary, as the form is made up in a stub book and the 
stub constitutes the record. 

The merchandise has now been delivered to the consignee's agent 
and removed from the wharf. 



ACCOUNTING AND PAPER WORK 



91 



Papers of the (Outbound) Receiving Clerk's Office.— The 
cargo from the Saluda, from Liverpool to Philadelphia, has now 
been discharged and delivered or otherwise disposed of. The Saluda 



T'k/'yy 



No.. 



i^O 



AMERICAN LINE. 

ATLANTIC TRANSPORT LINE 

RED STAR LINE. 



INTERNATIONAL MERCANTILE MARINE LINES 

405-40f^auRse builoing 



Deiiveryi Clerk: 

Deliver to order oj 

ike following merchandise from above-named Steameri&t Aerl Jt^^^^. ^ 

I S> South 



MARKS AND NUMBCNS. 



^Ta)y^/^3t 



I «^«* WkPV 




"""*" ii » T > ■-- ■ ■ ■ ^^ ( »«( i ~i-r i nrn i - x ■ ■ ■ l 



Fig. 18. — truckman's pass to permit him to remove goods from the wharf. 



must be enfreighted for the return trip. The outbound or east- 
bound freight department has been soliciting freight. Various' 
records and forms are necessary at the main office and at the wharf 



AMERICAN UNE- 
ATLANTIC TRANSPORT UNE 



fiv/'jr 



*e«*«o« aouRse ■uikOiN* 



RED STAR UNE 

HOLLAND>AMERICA UNE 
PHILADELPHIJL-..AilSjL. 25^__ 19I9 . 



iHar 8ir$:—. 



Plta*9 dtUvr 



\vr to /s 



PHIfcAOCI.n«A. 



Saluds 



jut /\er.55..South 



wnUraet. 



.Wharves on Tuesday. Aug. 26th. 1919 <*>■ following cargo under 

Yours irxtly, 

WALTER T. ROACH. 

M*nac«r, 




Fig. 19. — ^delivery notice. 

to keep track of this business. These papers pass through the office 
of the receiving clerk, to keep track of the freight and proper charges, 
and to the office of the pier superintendent, who is more directly con- 
cerned v/ith the loading and stowing. 



92 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



The Delivery Notice,— A patron of the line, let us say Caldwell 
& Company, has secured space for the shipment of six boxes of iron 
car trucks on the Saluda, sailing on or about August 28. When the 
outbound freight department learns from the wharf superintendent 
that the Saluda is light and will be loading on August 26, 27, 28, 
and 29, and will probably want to load these car trucks August 26 
late or early August 27, there is then sent to the consignor (Caldwell 
& Company) a notice (Fig. 19) that reads: 

Philadelphia, August 25. 
Messrs. Caldwell & Company, 

Philadelphia. 

Dear Sirs : 

Please deliver to Saluda a^ pier 55, South on Tuesday, 

August 26, 1 gig, the following cargo under contract. 

Yours truly, 

Walter T. Roach, Manager, 

There then follows a description of the goods. This form is made 
out in duplicate, the carbon copy being retained for the files. 

With piers crowded it is very important that the time of 
delivery as indicated by advices from the wharves be observed 
accurately in order not to encumber the wharves by having the goods 
arrive too soon or delay loading by having them arrive too late. 

Dock Receipt, — After the merchandise has arrived on the wharf 
the tallyman checks it, weighs and measures it, and enters the results 
on a tally list or slip (Fig. 6), addressed "to the receiving 
clerk," which he signs. This slip with the delivery order (Fig. 18) 
goes to the office of the receiving clerk, where the dock receipt clerk 
writes out the dock receipt (Fig. 20). The dock receipt is made 
out in duplicate, or check and stub, as in the sample. The original 
is given to the truckman or clerk accompanying the delivery and the 
duplicate is retained as a record. The dock receipt is an important 
paper, as it gives title to the goods until exchanged for the bill of 
lading, which must be done twenty-four hours before sailing date. 
Particular attention is called to the paragraph in fine print. 

The words "Received the following goods in apparent good 
order" are also important. The receiving clerk will refuse to accept 
any merchandise that is not in good order so far as can be seen, 
because once loaded the line faces the question of claims for damage' 



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94 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



II 



and for insurance, the responsibility of the steamship company, and 
many vexing and troublesome questions that may mean loss and 
delay. 

Record of Measurements.— Tht tally slip and delivery order go 
to the extension clerk in the receiving clerk's office, who converts the 
tallyman's long measurements of the cases into cubic measurement. 
Various forms are used to record the results and to forward them 
to the outbound freight department for exact calculation of the 
freight rate. The form illustrated in Figure 21 is used at New 
York but not used at Philadelphia. It shows, in the heading, the 
steamer, voyage, dock receipt number, date and shipper, and in 
columns it gives marks and numbers, number of packages in figures. 



MEASUREMENTS. 



JV. r. 



Voy..^ 



Receipt J^o. 



191 Shipper. 



Fig. 21. — MEASUREMENT RECORD. 

measurements, cube of one package, cubic contents of shipment, 
weight and remarks, where is stated the number of cargo tons by 
weight or measurement as the case may be. The sheet should bear 
the name of the tallyman who measured and weighed the goods and 
be signed by the extension clerk. There may be two copies, one for 
the wharf and one for the outbound freight department, or the 
receiving clerk's record may be entered in a book. 

The Cargo List or Sheet (Fig. 22).— As rapidly as merchandise 
IS accepted for shipment and tonnage calculations are made, the cargo 
sheet clerk enters the items on a large form called "East Bound Cargo 

^^s^» S. S , Voyage , Sailed 19—" 

The sheets are numbered consecutively. The forms differ even 












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i^- 



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l: 



96 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



between offices of the same company, but the list must show all the 
details of all the shipments made on the vessel. There are columns 
in which are entered, across the page: the shipper, the consignee. 



OUTWARD FOREIGN MANIFEST 

(T* b« 0.4 «Nk CalMlw k, Ike M«l«.) 
<». 8. 4m. 41W. ud Art, 140 rf Cu*on, R.r.UUo«. of |»U ) 



-^ 191 9 



Report .„d m.nif«t of th. c^ Men for .hipment from th. Port of fM J«-r?lpl,U 

on board thelAJI^.r.^can ..Freight SS "galudR" ~ 

A. E. Ellis * *"*' oi«-;i*V • - "«t tons, whereof 

w niMtw, bound for..t^.y.?.r.r«>.".ll. Engla nd. 

Nameof Agwit.A"**'***" Line ... 40ft n«.„.-«. o, . 



BWCtA%ktUm. 



Han 



HnnB 



llonds 






1429 



.5?.i..t>M?..*.i.r.?..n«iis. 

784 •• _ •• •• 
saB^j* ^ •• 

21.6.._.r. " "H 

-5iP._.„". .*!.. 4 



4Qp...c.aj?e9_c.arjdy_ 



R.A_CJZ7. — U-fe«J.«Li«p.er_h«„ri^lo£a_ 

a* I 




aU..c.-»^p«,,cuU^„^.^^^^^^..^^,_^^^^-^;^-^^ 



Fig. 23 — OFFICIAL manifest for the collector of customs. 

marks and numbers, initial (that is, how received, by team, lighter, 
rail, etc.), number of through bill of lading or car number, kind of 
container, quantity and nature of the merchandise, weight, measure- 
ment, U. S. license number, U. S. Customs declaration number 2 and 

^-M^l'^^K^^P" Work in Export Trade," Miscellaneous Series No 8< 
(sold by the Superintendent of Documents for $1), for a full de cHption of 

onaTnreT' "'""' *^""^^*^ ^^'^ '^' ^»^'P"^^"^' ^"<^'"d-« steams'^ bill 



,/ 



^^^^* ^Q Voyage No. . . Freight Manifest of the S. S. "SALUDA," . . . Master, Bound from Philadelphia to LIVERPOOL. Sailed . . . .Draft ( X?'**.". . V. f?" " " u Coal 



No. 
Ship's 

Bill 
Lading 



A-i 



A-3 



A-3 
A-4 



As 

A-6 
A-7 



A-8 



A-9 

A-io 

A-ii 

A-12 

A-13 
A-14 
A-I5 
A-16 

A.17 



A-18 
A-19 
A-ao 



A-2I 
A-32 

A-a3 
A-24 
A-as 

A*a6 
A'27 

A-28 



A-29 

A-30 



Tcms. 



No. Through 
Bill Lading 



MCRO 105 JHR 643 



MCRO 73JRH1103 



ROC 
MCRC 



74 JHR 1 105 
199 " 64s 



MCRC 198 " 649 
MCRC 206 " 649 
MCRC 4144 " 652 



MCRC 330 



MCRC 
MCRC 
MCRC 
MCRC 
MCRC 
MCRC 
MCRC 
MCRC 
UL 



221 
222 

223 
224 

225 
226 
227 
219 
183 



355 



" 633 

;; 635 
633 

" 633 

" 633 

" 663 

" 66s 

" 665 

" 633 



UL 182 " 633 

UL 186 " 653 

NYCRC 3158 ISS 7538 



NYCRC 5 133 " 7558 

CBRRR 1 1936, 419. 694 

CBRRR 1 1037 " 634 
CBRRR 1 1038 " 634 
CRR&PR 11539 " 634 
CRR&PR 11540 " 634 
CRR&PR 11340 " 651 

NY&JRR 332 " 651 

NYCRC 333 " 651 
AT&SFRR 334 " 651 



Date of 

Bill 
Lading 



8/1 1 
8/11 



do 
do 



do 

8/12 
8/13 



8/14 



do 
8/is 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 
8/14 



do 

do 

8/15 



do 

8/17 

8/17 
do 
do 
do 
do 

8/18 



do 
do 



Shippers 



Parker Webb & Co. 



Krey Packing^ Co. 



Consignees 



Parker 



do 
Webb 



& Co. 



John 



do 

do 
Morell & Co. 



Hammond Standish 
& Co. 



Order Parker Webb & Co. 
Ntfy. Joe Roper & Co., 

Liverpool 
Order Krey Packing Co., 

New York 
Carrothers & Co., Liver- 
pool, Eng. 
do 
Order of Paiker Webb 

& Co. 

Ntfy. Geo. Boyer & Co. 

Liverpool 

do 

do 

Order John Morell & Co, 

Ntfy. , Liverpool, 

England 



Marks 



Brennan 



do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
Packing 



Co. 



Armour 



do 
do 
& Co. 



do 



Wilson & Co. 

do 
do 

do 
do 

Cudahy Packing Co 



Cudahy Packing Co 



do 
do 



Order of Hammond 
Standish & Co. 
Ntfy. Robinson Fatty & 
Co., Liverpool 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
Order of Brennan Pack- 
ing Co. 
Ntfy. W. W. Harvel, 
Liverpool, Eng. 
do 
do 
Order Armour & Co., 
Ntfy. Cooperative Whole- 
sale Society, Ltd., Eng 
land, Liverpool 



do 



Order Wilson & Co.. 

Ntfy. , Liverpool, 

England 



(BK) Y 



416 to 465 Inc. 



466 to 515 Inc. 
(CR) Y (JR) Y 



(CR) Y 

(JR)Y 

iTi (A) 131 iTi 

(A) 191 1711 (A) 171 171 

D E 

(A) iFx iTi (A) iFi 

F J 



(B) BD 31 1 to 5 



(F) E 3 43 I to 5 
(B) B 5 33 1 to 5 
(B) B 3 47 I to 3 
(B) B 8 43 1 to 10 
(R) B8 511 to 10 
(B) B821 1 to 5 
(B) B 8 19 I to 5 
(R)B8 3S 

I to so 



I to 50 

I to 50 

A USS/C 

1 1 to 20 MTH/ 

A (B CWS) T 1-4S 



Merchandise 



do 

do 

<lo 

Order Cudahy Packing 

Co. 

Ntfv. Geo. & Jno. Nickson 

Order Cudahy Packing Co 

Ntfy. Geo. & Jno. Nickson 

& Co.. Ltd. 

do 

do 



A/TTS/BTH CH (CEB R) 
A H (CEB R) A T C 14-20 
II I to 6 

/W & Co. 1047 Lvpool 
h I to 250 

/W & Co./37t Lvpool 

di to 100 

/W & C0./370 Lvpool 

A 1 to A 150 

/W & C0./372 Lvpool 

Ai to A so 

/W&C0./371 Lvpool 

Ai to A 100 

(L) 1433 Liverpool 



(L) 1245 Lvpool 



(L) Liverpool /s/ 
H (L) 2 Liverpool 



33 Bxs. Cumberlands 



SO Bxs. 33 Bellies 



so Bxs. 33 Bellies 
13 Bxs. OS Backs 
42 Bxs. Cumberlands 



55 Bxs. DS Backs 

55 Bxs. 85 Cumberlands 

18 Bxs. Long Clears 

1 *' So. Backs 

4 " '^ ♦• 

24 " " «• 
16 " " •• 

65 

5 Bxs. DS Backs 

( ) 



5 Bxs. DS Backs 

S Bxs. Bellies 

3 Bxs. DS Cumberlands 

10 Bxs. DS Bellies 

10 Bxs. DS Cumberlands 
5 Bxs. DS Cumberlands 

5 Bxs. DS Bellies 

SO Bxs. DS Short Cut Hams 
50 Bxs. DS Cumberlands 



50 Bxs. DS Cumberlands 
50 Bxs. DS Cumberlands 
10 Bxs. Dry Salt Meat 
20 Bxs. " " " 
15 Bxs. " " •« 

45 

20 Bxs. Dry Salt Meat 

2Q •« ♦• •• «• 

iC « « <« t< 

_ « « << « 

250 Bxs. Pure Lard 
200 Bxs. Pure Lard 
150 Bxs. Pure Lard 
50 Bxs. Pure Lard 
100 Bxs. Pure Lard 
300 Bxs. Pure Lard 

10 Bxs. DS Cumberlands 



3 Bxs. Bacon 

2 Bxs. DS Cumberlands 



Weight 



Tons Cwt. Qrs. Lbs. 



Measurements 
Feet In. 



58060 



34360 



36500 
37399 



38101 
3827s 



42768 
3401 



3426 
3433 
2835 
7028 
5781 
2880 
3521 
34035 
53442 



36160 
29125 



30814 

30601 
16850 

13500 
3150 
3250 
6500 

19500 

5884 



1017 
1183 



Rate 



1. 00 



do 



do 
do 



do 
do 



do 

do 



do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 



do 
do 



do 



do 



do 
do 



Steamer's 
Freight 



s. 



$580.60 



$343.60 



$365.00 
$373.99 



$381.01 

%3^2.72 



$427.68 
$34.01 



$34.26 
$34.33 
$28.35 

$70.28 

$S7.8i 

$28.80 

$35.21 

$340.35 

$534.42 



$361.60 
$291.25 



$308.14 



do 
do 


$306.01 
$168.50 


do 


$13500 


do 


$31.50 


do 


$32.50 


do 


$65.00 


do 


$195.00 



$58.84 



$10.17 

$11.83 



Charges 



156.S6 



Total Payment at 



Philadelphia 



$580.60 



$343.60 



$365.00 
$373.99 



$381.01 
$382.72 



$34.01 



$34.26 
$34.33 
$28.35 
$70.28 
$57.81 
$28.80 
$35.21 
$340.35 
$534.42 



$361.60 
$291.25 



$308.14 

$306.01 

$168.50 

$135.00 
$31.50 
$32.50 
$65.00 

$195.00 

$.<;8.84 



$10.17 
$11.83 



Destination 



$427.68 



\ 



li 



ACCOUNTING AND PAPER WORK 97 

remarks. The information is received from the dock receipt stubs and 
the calculations of the extension clerk, with delivery notice and other 
papers that may have accumulated. Two copies are made, one is 
retained, the other goes to the main office. From it and the bills of 
lading is made out the ship's manifest. 

The Ship's Freight Manifest. — Every ship by law must carry 
a complete and accurate list of all passengers and of all freight on 
the vessel on a particular voyage. It is necessary to have the mani- 



AMKRICAN UNb 

Ur. STEPHEN A. SCHELL. 
Slri 



ATlANTie TflANSI»OIIT UMB. 



HOUANO>AMCIIieA UNK. 



■»^.^w AUK. Xlth. 1919^ 



Sslew w* haM yM nMiMMMum af maraMndiM for ».««■»«. Salud* 

—111.^ August. .i»il«_, ii ^ Liverpool. 

Yaur* truly. 



.V«»- 



P. F. YOUNG. Manaoer. 

p ^ L. S. Hft MILTOW 



Bl*ke Pobba Compimy 



Armour It Company 



Emlenton Refc.Co. 



S.K. Delp Grain Co. 



2 lo ids Otis 



4000 a icks 



100 s 



rolled oats 



.eel 



16666 'ushela barley 



3bls. lub. dl 



CtEKIT 



L. h Moore Ct. 



D.O.C. lAoo 



286 



198 



20 



357 



cvwcriiT 



20,000 



15,840 



1,200 



20,700 



• /I I 



: ocel 



62 



P. a. a. 



P.P.R. 



r.R.R. 



Local 



Fig. 24. — NOTICE of space sold. 

fest complete and ready to be carried by the master as part of his 
ship's papers when the ship sails. Modern manifests are large 
sheets, made out on a wide-carriage typewriter. As many carbons 
as possible are made, as copies of the manifest go to numerous offices 
and files. The headings of the sheets and columns cover various 
entries, among which we find many old friends and some new 
items. (See folded insert.) 

Outward Foreign Manifest,— The official form of manifest, 
which must be filed with the Collector of Customs by the Master of 
the Ship, for the customs (clearance office) is shown in Figure 23, to 
which may be attached copies of the ship's freight manifest. This 
form is made in triplicate: original and copies to the customhouse, 
which retains one, gives one to the master for his ship's papers, and 
one is retained by the line. The document must be sworn to. 

Memorandum of Merchandise for the Wharf Supeiintendent. — 
As rapidly as space is sold for a certain steamer the wharf superin- 



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WHARF MANAGEMENT 



V 



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tendent must be informed to enable him to plan the stowing. The 
sample notice (Fig. 24) is dated August 11, which is more than 
two weeks before the next sailing of the Saluda, The notice reads ; 

Philadelphia, August 11, 1919. 

Mr. Stephen A. Schell, Dock Superintendent. 
Dear Sir: 

Below we hand you memorandum of merchandise for Steamer 
Saluda, Voyage 2, sailing August (date not known), 1919, for 
Liverpool. 

Yours truly, 

P. F. Young, Manager, 
Per L. S. Hamilton, Clerk, 

Then follows in ruled columns the name of the shipper, quantity 
and nature of the merchandise, marks, tons weight, and cubic feet 
(consignor's measurement), BL. or car No., delivery (if arriving 
locally) or by what railroad. This form is executed in triplicate or 
quadruplicate, original to the wharf, one copy retained, one to the 
railroad or roads concerned with the delivery of the freight to the 
pier. 

The Stowage Plan, — The wharf superintendent allows the no- 
tices for the Saluda to accumulate in a file until shortly before actual 
stowing operations begin. The notices are then gone over and the 
ship is loaded on paper by writing the various shipments into the 
spaces on a ship's profile stowage chart, a rough fore-and-aft sec- 
tional outline of this ship or another of the same type (Figs. 25 
and 26). As loading proceeds the items are checked off, and any 
changes due to unforeseen conditions are noted. This work is all 
done by the stowage clerk with the advice of the pier superintendent, 
chief stevedore, and ship's master. When lading is practically com- 
pleted a fresh profile stowage plan is made with at least two carbon 
copies. The original is retained, one copy goes with the ship, and 
one to the customhouse with the manifest and other clearance papers. 
The final plan records the draft forward, aft, and mean ; tons of coal, 
tons of water, tons of cargo, and sometimes average tonnage loaded 
per day, or hour, total time for loading, etc. Additional points con- 
cerning the stowage plan will be developed in later chapters. 






CHAPTER VI 

CARGO TRANSFER: I. METHODS OF TRANSFER* 

Introductory Statement. — The term "transfer" is applied to 
the movement of freight between a ship and a wharf or another 
vessel. Hereafter, when the term "transfer movement'* or "transfer" 
is used it means only the movement to or from a ship. The term 
"cargo-handling" is used sometimes to include transfer, but usually 
the term applies to the movement of goods about the wharves and 
warehouses, such as stacking, weighing, tiering, and all those proc- 
esses where hands are laid on the various pieces of merchandise. 

In loading and discharging vessels there are two distinct types of 
transfer: (1) transfer through side ports, and (2) transfer through 
deck hatches. Side-port transfer prevails in coastwise, river, and 
Great Lakes traffic, also in harbor craft, particularly with covered 
lighters. Side-port movement is similar to loading and unloading 
a box car. 

Transfer through hatches is the prevailing type in all ocean- 
going vessels and in the great bulk-freight carriers that are so efficient 
on the Great Lakes. This transfer has its parallel in loading and 
unloading the gondola car in railroad freight service. 

Transfer to the decks of ocean vessels may be by either the side- 
port or the deck-hatch method so far as the movement or trajectory 
is concerned. For instance, in the transfer to an open-deck lighter, 
such as most of those used about American harbors, it is immaterial 
whether the machinery used for hatch transfer deposits the goods 
from above or whether the machinery used for a side-port transfer 
runs on to the deck laterally. There is a parallel in transfer to •r 
from the flat car in railroad service. It is also immaterial whether 
a crane or "winch and fall" deposits the package vertically from 
above or horizontally from the side. Therefore, open-deck loading 
may be by either the horizontal or the vertical method. These two 



I 



* By R. S. MacElwee. 



lOI 



i 



f I 



i 



102 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



methods of transfer are occupying the attention of all shipping men 
and terminal engineers and require most careful stiady. 

The lack of standard practice is conspicuous in both cases. For 
many years past a storm of argument has raged concerning the rela- 
tive merits of different types of transfer equipment. Some authori- 
ties have called the ship-loading methods used in the United States 
archaic. There is no doubt about the antiquity; sufficient historical 
evidence shows that the side-port method of transfer was used when 
the Phoenicians dominated the commerce of the Mediterranean, 8oo 
to 1000 B. C. 

The lack of standardization results in much inefficiency, confu- 
sion, and loss of time ; therefore, greater expense, a drag on our com- 
merce, and an element in the high cost of living. 

The ultimate gain by standardization of methods and by the 
construction of piers properly planned for all the purposes to which 
a pier may be subjected would result in an enormous saving. The 
cost of handling, cost of transfer, and cost of holding the ship in port 
could be reduced materially. 

Before proceeding to the study of the more universal methods of 
cargo transfer it is worth while to consider, for a few moments, some 
of the reasons for the great diversity in methods, and also some of 
the economic factors underlying the choice of equipment. 

There are several reasons for the great diversity in handling 
methods. The principal one, of course, is that of inertia — the 
characteristic of the human mind to be diverted with difficulty from 
a habit once made. The superintendent of each pier or wharf has his 
own method of loading and unloading and enforces his ideas on 
the longshoremen working under him. The longshoremen, being a 
more or less floating collection, pick up various ideas in their career, 
and when one of them rises to fill the position of pier superintendent 
or boss stevedore he has accumulated his own opinions as to how 
transfer should be done and sees that his ideas are carried out on his 
own pier at least. Having derived his methods out of his own long 
experience, he is naturally very skeptical concerning new methods 
with which he is not familiar. The chief stevedore of a steamship 
line, or of a stevedore company, is so important to the working of 
the company that it hesitates to enforce upon him any new devices 
that do not appeal to his fancy. 

As a result of this mental inertia, the methods actually employed 



h 



CARGO TRANSFER: I. METHODS OF TRANSFER 103 

differ widely from one pier to another. There has been a storm of 
argument, which is still going on, concerning the relative merits of 
pier and quay systems, of wharf cranes and deck-winch systems, of 
continuous conveyors and rope falls, and all the other various combi- 
nations of "new-fangled" ideas that are meeting with opposition 
from the old crews. A conspicuous example of diversity of opinion 
is the argument that has been raging between the Society of Termi- 
nal Engineers, on the one hand, and the New York port authori- 
ties, on the other, concerning the type of construction that should be 
adopted for the Staten Island piers. The astounding thing has been 
the tenacity with which the so-called "old and experienced steamship 
men" have clung to the antiquated systems of pier construction and 
equipment that have grown up at the Port of New York and else- 
where because of certain historical conditions. This is an excellent 
example of inertia. The piers of New York were designed in their 
present form not because that was the most efficient form but 
because of certain limitations. The New York piers were built at 
the ends of the streets because the city had the right to the land under 
water at the extension of the streets. Therefore, the pier was limited 
to the width of the street. It was also limited in length by the army 
engineers because of certain rules regarding tidal prisms and other 
factors. 

The steamship lines of New York have gotten on more or less 
satisfactorily in spite of the difficulties of the specified layout of their 
piers, and they have come to believe that the only way to operate 
a pier is to operate it exactly in the way that they have been 
forced to adopt by circumstances. Like the prisoner who had slept 
on his hard couch for ten years and, therefore, could not become 
accustomed to a hair mattress, so have many steamship companies 
and their superintendents, stevedores, and longshoremen become so 
accustomed to the cramped quarters of the inadequate New York 
piers that they cannot see the comforts of a new order of things 
that would follow a liberation from the enforced confinement imposed 
by the historical background of the Manhattan water front. 

It is not astonishing that the old line steamship men have been 
cramped like a Chinese lady's foot in their attitude toward water-front 
improvement. Even very progressive and enlightened harbor engi- 
neers have maintained that the New York pier system is superior to 
some of the most modern and efficient European systems that were 



104 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



i 



I 



built according to well thought-out plans and not forced into a 
straight- jacket of existing circumstances.^ 

Striking examples of inertia in freight-handling methods may be 
seen along the newly finished New York State Barge Canal, where 
modern equipment is allowed to stand idle while methods of thirty 
years ago are continued in practice. The old boatmen became so 
accustomed to their methods of transfer from canal barge to shore 
that it is an astounding fact that the newly equipped terminals are 
hardly used. At many of the barge canal terminals the State of New 
York has provided a locomotive steam crane that operates on flat 
wheels and can proceed to any point along the wharf. This steam 
crane is very easily operated and can handle rapidly light and heavy 
drafts from the barge to the shore. Nevertheless, the boatmen will 
allow this crane to stand with steam up — the use of it costing only a 
nominal fee — and will proceed with their old methods. A common 
type in use is the horse-and-fall rig, or "horse elevator." A mast 
and boom is rigged on shore with a simple block and tackle; a fall 
line from the hook passes over a pulley at the end of the boom and to 
the foot of the mast. At the other end of the line is attached a whiffle 
tree to which a horse or mule is hitched. The hook is attached to 
the draft, the signalman calls out, and the driver and the horse 
walk away from the base of the mast and lift the draft to above the 
level of the deck of the canal boat. It is then swung back and 
forth a few times and at the right moment "Let go" is called and the 
draft is dropped on to the deck. It is then trundled with hand 
trucks across a gangplank to the shore, or it may be swung across 
from the edge of the boat to the edge of the wharf. The boatman 
will lose an hour going down to a livery stable and getting a horse 
to enact this antiquated performance of unloading when a modern 
power crane, with steam up, will stand by unused. Iron ore and 
coal were handled on the Great Lakes in this same way thirty years 
ago at a cost of 50 to 60 cents a ton, and at a speed of 1 50 tons a day. 
It is now handled by mechanical means, 1,000 tons an hour, at a 
cost of 2 or 3 cents a ton. It seems impossible to believe that one 
may go to the modern port of Philadelphia and see the horse eleva- 
tor unloading alongside a modern pier. 

The problem of selecting wharf equipment is not simple. No 



"For example, sec the report on "New York Water Terminal and 
Transfer Facilities," H. of R. Doc. No. 226, 63rd Congress, ist Session, 1913. 



' 






CARGO TRANSFER: I. METHODS OF TRANSFER 105 

single method is applicable to all commodities, vessels, piers, and 
ports. The tendency is to ignore some of the many variables that 
are found in the problem. 

A quadratic equation with five variables cannot be solved unless 
four of the variables are held constant, while a value is obtained 
for the fifth, the process being repeated until values are obtained for 
all. But many port authorities, terminal engineers, and shipping 
men have forgotten this algebraic principle and jumped to a solution 
when having the value of one variable only. To solve the problem 
for one port and one type of merchandise alone is an enormous piece 
of work, and one that has never been adequately undertaken.^ 

The most complete study of the subject is that just completed by 
the New York-New Jersey Port and Harbor Commission under Mr. 
B. F. Cresson, Jr. It employed a large force of men and took two 
years for the work. Its conclusions are extremely valuable. The 
results obtained by this very extensive analysis of port facilities 
should be an aid to all water-front problems. 

The questions of cargo transfer and handling and wharf layout 
must be solved for each particular case. Even the horse elevator of 
the old canal boatmen has its place. One may pass by and remark. 
How is it possible that these antiquated methods are being used? 
However, by a close observation of the facts in the case one may find 
that the horse and fall is the cheapest way to unload that barge under 
the circumstances, even if wages for longshoremen are $7 a day. In 
the handling and transfer of cargo or the handling of any material 
one is always confronted with the problem of "earning the overhead." 
For any given mechanical equipment there must be sufficient cargo 
handled per year to make the saving per ton pay for the expense of 
installing the equipment. Two $25,000 cranes, or a total expense for 
cranes of $50,000, on a wharf where they will transfer only 100,000 
tons of freight a year would mean an initial cost of 50 cents for every 
ton of freight handled. Figuring depreciation at 20 per cent, which 
is, of course, very liberal, plus the interest on the investment and plus 
the cost of operation, it may be found that it would be cheaper to 
handle freight at the wharf in question by the old horse-elevator 
method. 

In proceeding to the study of both side-port and deck-hatch 
'T. R. Taylor, Siov;age of Ship Cargoes. 



io6 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



methods of transfer it is necessary to keep in mind the essential fact 
that each case must be solved on its merits. The main energy of the 
study will be devoted to things as they are, rather than to possible 
improvements. However, the possibility of improvement must never 
be lost to view. 

Transfer through Side Ports 

The prevailing practice in freight transfer on harbor lighters 
and on coastwise, river, and Great Lakes package-freight vessels is 
through a side port or an opening in the side of the vessel on to 
its main deck. Side-port vessels have a shallow hold, and the 
volume of freight carried in the hold is not comparable in amount 
with that carried in the hold of an ocean-going vessel. Particularly 
in the shallow-draft steamboats used in river navigation there is little 
or no cargo space in the hold. The main object in carrying cargo on 
the deck is to afford rapid and easy transfer of small quantities of 
merchandise at ports of call along the river or lake in a port-to-port 
service. The system of deck loads has certain advantages for this 
kind of service. 

Transfer by Unassisted Man Power. — The practice of carry- 
ing freight on the backs or shoulders or heads of persons is called 
"steamboating." It is confined largely to rivers where the vessels 
and the packages of freight are small. Even in these places it is 
being eliminated by more improved methods. It has been common to 
New Orleans and to the levees of the Mississippi River where colored 
longshoremen carry freight on their backs, heads, or shoulders. In 
many parts of the world vessels are still loaded by a great mass of 
unassisted man power just as in the days of the Egyptians and the 
Phoenicians. In some parts of the West Indies vessels are bunkered 
by native women, who carry small baskets of coal on their heads in a 
long procession. At New Orleans the ruling of the National Ad- 
justment Commission is: "The practice of 'steamboating,' or carry- 
ing freight in and out of ships or in and out of cars, will be reduced to 
the smallest practical minimum." * 

Transfer by Hand Truck. — The common method through- 
out the United States and many other countries in all side-port load- 



Coastwise Longshoremen Award at New Orleans, October 21, 1918, 
Nat. Adj. Com., 1918, 126. See also Thomas R. Taylor, Stoiuage of Skip 
Cargoes. 



CARGO TRANSFER; I. METHODS OF TRANSFER 107 

ing and unloading is the use of the hand truck. This is a very 
simple operation, particularly along canals and on the Great Lakes, 
where there is little change in the water level due to rise and fall of 
the river or tide. The system is exactly the same as that employed 
in loading a box car. A gangplank is laid between the wharf and 
the deck of the vessel, over which the longshoremen push hand 
trucks with their loads. 

On the Great Lakes the longshoremen are so jealous of the 
privilege of pushing hand trucks back and forth that they fight 
individually and as a union any efforts to introduce labor-saving 
equipment. The longshoremen at the head of the Lakes and at 
Buffalo will carry only three bags of flour on a hand truck at one 
time ; and they refuse to allow the transfer movement to be assisted 
by mechanical means. A barge line at Buffalo installed a crane to 
transfer merchandise across railroad tracks to a freight shed, but 
the unions forced the abandonment of the crane and the bridging 
over of the tracks. The most simple mechanical conveyor for side- 
port transfer is the continuous chain and lug system, or Reno con- 
veyor. This consists of an endless chain run over sprocket wheels 
and driven by an electric motor. Lugs protruding from the chain at 
intervals engage the bar or axle of a hand truck and pull the hand 
truck along. This mechanism has been particularly helpful at Bos- 
ton, New Orleans and other places where there is a wide range in the 
water level. It is obvious that if the hand-truck load is helped up 
the incline of the gangplank in such a manner that the longshore- 
man has only to move himself and keep the hand truck steady, a 
greater dispatch is afforded. 

Hand-truck Transfer and Loose-pulley Fall.— Package- 
freight vessels on the Great Lakes carry from four to five thousand 
tons of freight, partly on the deck and partly in the hold. In 
loading bags of flour to the hold of the vessel the longshoremen pass 
in procession across the gangplank onto the main deck and up to 
the edge of the hatch, tip the hand truck over and the flour bags 
drop into the hold. As the distance is only 12 or 13 or 14 feet, the 
fall is not serious. After dumping a truckload the longshoreman 
proceeds with his empty truck around the hatch, out over another 
gangplank, and back to the loading point. To hoist the hold 
cargo to the deck for discharging the lake vessels have developed 
a loose pulley and fall. Power is supplied through an ordinary 



io8 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



i I 



shop transmission shaft driven from the engine room. At each 
hatch there is a fixed and a loose pulley with a belt running to a small 
wooden drum over the hatch. The belt is shifted from one pulley to 
the other by a lever, exactly as in a machine shop. The drum winds 
or unwinds a pendent — a fall rope with a hook. Discharging 
is performed as follows: The fall rope having been lowered into 
the hold and hooked to a draft of bags of flour, for instance, a 
signal is given to the man at the lever, who throws the belt from 
the loose pulley to the fixed pulley. The load is lifted to above 
the level of the deck, and when the signalman indicates to let go, 
the belt is shifted from the fixed pulley back to the loose pulley at 
the same time that the draft is swung sidewise on to the deck. It is 
unhooked, the hook falls into the hold for the next draft, while the 
longshoremen pick up the bags of flour, load them on trucks, and 
push them ashore across the gangplank. The motion is a positive 
and direct one and works very well. 

Transfer by Mechanical Conveyors. — Considerable progress 
has been made in the introduction of mechanical belt conveyors for 
side-port transfer. These conveyors are moving gangplanks that 
make unnecessary the travel of the stevedore with his hand truck 
from the main deck of the vessel to the deck of the wharf. The 
difference in level is not important within wide limits, as the con- 
veyors can be fitted with cleats that make it possible to carry 
bags, barrels, and small boxes to an angle of 30 degrees or more from 
the horizontal. For example: In discharging flour in bags as just 
described, when the bags are landed on the main deck from the 
loose-pulley fall, instead of being loaded on to a hand truck and 
taken across the gangplank to the shore by man power, the bags 
are thrown on to the constantly moving belt conveyor. The con- 
veyor will carry them across to the longshoremen inside the ware- 
house or transit shed, where the bags may be stacked or tiered by 
tiering machinery. These portable horizontal conveyors are gaining 
in popularity. An excellent example is to be found on the New York 
State Barge Canal at Schenectady, where the General Electric Com- 
pany uses one continuously for loading and unloading canal barges. 

The gravity conveyor or roller gangplank is worthy of notice. 
For transfer from a higher to a slightly lower level it is possible to 
use a roller gangplank without power. This is a very simple device 
consisting of a frame with rollers between them. The rollers arc 



^ 



CARGO TRANSFER: I. METHODS OF TRANSFER 109 

slightly concave to direct the package to the middle of the conveyor 
and they turn on ball-bearings. A box placed upon one end of the 
conveyor runs by gravity down to the other end, where it is picked 
up by the longshoremen and tiered, stowed, or otherwise handled. 
All these devices may be used in combination, and it depends upon 
the ingenuity, enlightenment, and alertness of the wharf superin- 
tendent and boss stevedore in each case to utilize such simple or 
elaborate equipment as is justified by the amount of cargo to be 
handled and the saving that could be accomplished thereby. 

Side-port loading and unloading is bound to disappear before 
the mechanical transfer age. In certain services, however, we may 
expect a certain amount of side-port transfer for many years to 
come. 

Transfer through Over-all Hatches 

A very large proportion of all ocean-going freight is transferred 
through deck hatches, and the methods in use must be carefully 
understood. These methods may be divided into several groups, as 
follows : * 



1. 



2. 

4- 
5. 



Ship's tackle used exclusively. 

a. One winch and one boom and skids or planks. 

b. Two winches and two booms. 

Ship's tackle used in connection with cargo masts and pier 

winches. 
Cranes on the wharf. 

Floating cranes (particularly for heavy lifts). 
Specialized equipment. 



As ocean carriers must be prepared to go into ports of every 
degree of development, or lack of development, they must also be 
prepared to get along without any port facilities whatsoever except 
the lighters or small boats that may come alongside. For this reason 
all modern cargo carriers have a full equipment of booms and deck 
winches for transferring cargo. As the transfer of merchandise to 
and from the ship is done at the expense and responsibility of the 

'MacElwee, Ports and Terminal Facilities. McGraw-Hill Book Co., 
191 8. Taylor. Stowage of Ship Cargoes, U. S. Bureau of For. & Dom, 
Com., 1920. 



M 



i! 



H 



i 



^ 



no 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



ship, there has been a natural development of the transfer machinery 
on the ship. Bills of lading include, in the freight rate, transfer 
from alongside (within reach of the ship's sling) to the hold of the 
vessel and stowage therein of all usual cargo except packages of 
greater weight than 2,000 pounds, or of such form as not to be 
handled readily by the ship's equipment. Where there are pieces of 
cargo greater than 2,000 pounds, special arrangements are made 
and charges fixed accordingly. In the considerations that are to 
follow there is in mind miscellaneous cargo in packages of less than 
2,000 pounds ; this excludes for the present all the very heavy pack- 
ages and also bulk cargo. 

Prevailing American System.— Inasmuch as the prevailing 
American shipping practice puts the burden of transfer upon the 
ship, there have been developed practically no devices or mechanical 
equipment on the wharf itself, other than the transit shed — a cover- 
ing to shelter the merchandise. The interest in the study of wharf 
administration by aspiring young shipping men centers in the pre- 
vailing practices with which they will be confronted, rather than in 
changes advocated in many quarters. 

The ship's equipment consists usually of deck winches run by 
steam from the boiler room and of short stubby masts with a number 
of booms fitted with blocks and ropes or cables, through which the 
tnergy of the winches is brought to bear on the merchandise. Winches 
will be taken up in detail later, but the "business end" of the 
winch is a drum and a "drum end," sometimes called "winch head," 
or "drum-shaft extension." This is a steel spool at the end of the 
axle or shaft of the drum and free at one end. Lines are fastened 
to the drum and are wound up thereon and unwound. The drum 
end with the proper skill of the longshoremen gives greater flexibility. 
The drum-end man is able to take a few turns of rope around the 
spool, looping it in such a manner that he can maintain the proper 
degree of bite or friction and control the speed of the fall by the 
amount of slip. The line passes over blocks at the end of the boom. 
For additional lifting power double and triple blocks are sometimes 
used. With light drafts of about 1,000 to 2,000 pounds a simple 
block is used to obtain greater speed. A hatch is an opening which is 
boarded over at each deck it passes through. The hatch cover below 
the top deck is called the ceiling. Hatch openings when cleared 
extend from the deck of the vessel through to the hold. The planks 



« 



CARGO TRANSFER: I. METHODS OF TRANSFER 111 

under the hatch cover and in each deck rest upon steel stringers called 
"strongbacks" that run either athwartship or fore-and-aft across the 
opening. The hatch opening on the top deck should be fitted with a 
coaming 2^ to 3 feet high to prevent longshoremen from slipping 
into the hold. 

To clear a hatch consists in rolling back the tarpaulin that covers 
the planks and removing the planks by hand and setting them to 
one side. By means of the ship's tackle the beams or "strongbacks" 
are lifted out and put at one side. If the hatch is very large and the 
packages to be loaded are small only one part of the hatch needs to 
be cleared. Usually where the packages are small and the hatch 
large the entire hatch is cleared and two sets of tackle are used with 
two gangs of men and two falls. 

Brief Description of Three Common Methods. — The three 
simplest methods of transfer by ship's winches are: (1) a single 
winch with a single boom and fall, and a skid extending to the wharf ; 
(2) use of two deck winches and two booms, one extending over the 
hatch with the up-and-down fall, the other extending over the ship's 
side and carrying the burton fall, that is, the "fall-and-burton" sys- 
tem; (3) a combination of the fall-and-burton system in which the 
burton boom instead of a cargo mast on the wharf is used. In all 
of these cases, if the deck winch is out of order or if so desired, port- 
able winches on the wharves may be used for operating the falls. 

Single Boom and Up-and-Down Fall with a Skid. — The simplest 
method, though not used to any great extent at the present time, is 
by use of a single boom and skid. One cargo boom is placed extend- 
ing over the hatch opening. A fall through a block on this boom is 
operated by a single deck winch. One end of the fall is wound on 
the winch drum; at the other end is a hook that must be heavy 
enough to draw down the empty rope or weighted for that purpose. 
The draft is brought to the edge of the wharf. From the wharf to 
the deck of the ship and from the deck coaming to the hatch coaming 
extend heavy planks. The longshoreman carries the empty hook to 
the edge of the deck and throws it on to the wharf where it is hooked 
on to the draft. The winch is started and slides or drags the draft 
along the gangplank skid. When the load clears the ship's side it 
swings over the hatch by gravity. The stevedore, by means of a guide 
line that he dexterously throws around the fall rope just above the 
hook, prevents the draft from swinging athwartship and banging 



112 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



against the boards or the coamings on the opposite side of the hatch 
(see Fig. 27). 

The draft being brought to rest above the hatch is then lowered, 
by throwing out the lines on the drum end or reversing the deck 
winch, until it reaches the point above the floor of the hold when 
"stop" is signaled. It is then lowered slowly to the hold, being 
swung to one side or the other as desired. When the hook is liberated 
the stevedore snaps the hoisting line and throws the hook dexterously 
over the side of the ship on to the wharf where it is ready for the 
next load. With practice considerable speed may be developed in 
handling drafts in this way. 




Fig. 27. — STOPPING the swing when loading with single boom 
AND SKID. {Courtesy of Lidfferwood.) 

The Burton-and'Fall or Y ard-and-Stay System. — In spite of the 
possible damage to the cargo by the single fall and skid method just 
described, it is used considerably for loading. When it comes to 
unloading, however, the difficulty of bringing the loaded draft 
athwartship in order to lower it overside is apparent. When loading 
it swings by gravity over the hatch, but when unloading the drag 
that is necessary to carry the load athwartship and then to lower it 
to the lighter or the pier deck is considerable. The burton-and-fall 
or two-mast system, has therefore been developed and is common 
practice for all ship's tackle rigs (see Fig. 28). 

In analyzing the movement of a draft of merchandise between a 



- 

' 



CARGO TRANSFER: I. METHODS OF TRANSFER 113 

wharf and hold we find the following: (1) elevation, a vertical move- 
ment from a wharf to a high position to clear the bulwark of the 
vessel ; (2) a horizontal movement athwartship to the middle of the 
hatch ; (3) a vertical movement down to the point of deposit in the 
vessel. In unloading, these three are reversed. This analysis dis- 
closes that there are up-and-down movements at two points, one above 




Fig. 28.— YARD AND STAY OR BURTON SYSTEM. {Courtesy Dept, of Whurves, 

Docks and Ferries, Philadelphia.) 

the hold, and one above the wharf, and a horizontal movement to 
cover the distance between these two vertical movements. In practice 
the movements are not sharply defined but merge one into the other, 
depending on the skill of the longshoremen running the winches. In 
order to accomplish the three movements with ship's tackle the two- 
boom and two-winch system have become general, in which there are 
two whips or ropes attached to a single hook, but operated by sep- 
arate winches over separate booms. 

A glance at any of the modern cargo carriers discloses the short. 



114 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



U' I 



stubby mast with a forest of booms built around the base of it. A 
mast with its booms, located between two hatches, is surrounded 
usually by four donkey engines or winches. The location of the 
four winches at the base of one of these masts of a modern cargo 
carrier is shown in Figure 29. This illustration shows the instal- 




FlG. 29. — MAST, BOOMS AND WINCHES BETWEEN TWO HATCHES. 
{Courtesy of Lidgeriuood.) 

lation of four single friction drum winches grouped around the mast, 
two winches for each hatch. 

Two booms and two winches are generally used at each hatch ; 
one boom is swung over the center of the hatch carrying the up-and- 
down fall and hook, and the other is swung outboard from the vessel 
in order to reach clear of the vessel's side and over the wharf. Over 
this boom the second winch operates the so-called "burton fall" or the 
"outboard fall." The terms given to these two lines or whips are not 
standardized, but for the uses here it should be remembered that the 
outboard line is called "the burton" and the hatch line is called 
"the fall." One must not be confused by the fact that the outboard 
line is sometimes called the burton fall to distinguish it from the up- 
and-down or hatch fall. The movements of the winches in the two- 
boom system with two winches may be analyzed as follows in trans- 
ferring a draft from the deck of a lighter or the wharf to the hold of 
the ship : ( 1 ) The far-side winch, operating the fall, has paid out the 



CARGO TRANSFER: I. METHODS OF TRANSFER 115 

rope that hangs over the rail of the vessel ; the near winch, operat- 
ing the burton, starts to lift the cargo and lifts it to a point suffi- 
ciently high to clear obstacles such as the bulwark rail and the hatch 
coamings; (2) the far-side winch begins to pull on the fall rope, 
thus drawing the load athwartship; (3) the burton winch lets go 
gradually, thus slacking off the fall until it comes to rest above the 
hatch; (4) the fall now lowers the draft into the hold, trailing the 
slack burton rope after it. 

The burton-and-fall two-boom and two-winch system is so rapid, 
direct, and efficient that there is plenty of ground for debate as to 
the superiority of wharf cranes, inasmuch as vessels must be pre- 
pared to meet all difficulties and must, therefore, have the necessary 
deck-hoisting equipment with them at all times. The system, 
although it requires two winch operators, is very direct; the move- 
ment across the ship and into the hold being quite rapid. The 
rapidity of this "diabolo" movement — it much resembles the old game 
of diabolo where the little spool is kept spinning on a string between 
two sticks — depends largely upon the skill of the drum-end man. 
He deserves particular consideration. 

The Drum-end Man, — As men- 
tioned in passing, and as will be 
described in detail under the de- 
scription of deck winches in par- 
ticular, a deck winch consists of a 
drum on which a rope is wound up 
and paid out, and a spool fastened 
to the extended axis of the drum, 
known as the "gypsy head," "nig- 
ger head" or "drum end." This spool extending out from the side of 
the winch should be from about 16 inches to about 24 inches in 
diameter. Its use is very popular, but the success of its use depends 
entirely upon the skill of the drum-end man (see Fig. 30). 

The work of the drum-end man is difficult to learn, and unless 
there is proficiency it is less speedy than a drum. The fall runs 
from the block on the boom to the drum end, around which a few 
loose turns of the rope are taken and a length of it is coiled up behind 
the drum-end man. The nice adjustment between the burton lift and 
the fall lift, the tightening of one whip and the slacking of the 
other, and the lifting of one and the lowering away of the other, 




Fig. 30. — ^DRUM-END MAN WORKING 
A DOCK WINCH. 



ii6 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



'11 



is controlled by two individuals, and their close harmony in working 
together depends upon their skill in keeping a flexible movement, by 
means of the amount of pressure or "bite" of the rope maintained by 
the drum-end man. 

The fall rope is wound around the drum end a number of times 
according to the work it has to do. A first coil must be put on with 
great care, for if it is put on with a kink it will reduce the friction and 
in lifting a heavy draft the rope may be cut. It must also be wound on 
the drum end in the direction in which the drum revolves, otherwise 
the fall will unwind itself, and it must be wound from the left end 
of the spool on the right-hand winch, and from the right end of the 
spool on the left-hand winch. After the rope is looped correctly 
around the drum end, the drum-end man regulates the "strike" and 
the "up-and-down travel" of the draft by causing the coils to slip 
or to bite on the spool. He accomplishes this by standing behind 
the winch with the loose end of the fall in his hands and pulling just 
enough to get the proper friction to take up the slack or lift the load, 
or he lets the rope slide through his hands just enough to lower the 
burden into the hold. The drum-end man usually wears heavy 
gloves to prevent the rope from burning his hands. 

The speed of raising or lowering cargo with drum ends is limited 
by the skill of the stevedore taking up the slack end of the fall and 
the quality of his judgment in maintaining the correct bite for the 
various sizes and positions of the draft. It seldom exceeds 170 feet 
per minute. As the speed depends largely upon the work of the 
drum-end man operating, the matter of fatigue plays a conspicuous 
part. The stevedore fresh in the morning may hoist at the rate of 
175 or 180 feet a minute, but as the afternoon wanes he slows up to 
about 125 or 130 feet. In crane operation, where there is practically 
no physical exertion and where the operation is more mechanical and 
less dependent upon personal skill, the same rate of speed is main- 
tained throughout the day. 

It is believed that greater hoisting speed could be accomplished and 
maintained by using winches with fixed wire rope wound around the 
drum and a speed averaging 325 feet a minute attained. A standard 
type of ship's winch reported by the manufacturers has three-quarter 
inch rope to hoist loads of one-half ton 100 feet at a speed of 400 
feet per minute ; 3-ton loads at 200 feet per minute ; 5-ton loads at 
120 feet per minute; and 8-ton loads at reduced speed, the full rated 



CARGO TRANSFER: I. METHODS OF TRANSFER 117 



capacity being 10,000 pounds maximum. However this may be, 
the fact still outstands that in the transfer movement in American 
ports to-day the drum-end man is a very important factor. 

A provisional boom or yard arm is sometimes set near the bulwark 
on the deck of the ship where the ship does not carry sufficient booms. 
Older vessels and some smaller vessels, sailing ships, and others are 
not sufficiently equipped with cargo booms, and it is necessary to set 
a second boom to handle the burton in the yard-and-stay or burton- 
and-fall method as described above. 

Many of the modern cargo carriers are equipped with two cargo 
masts stepped off center instead of one stepped midships. The masts 
off center are used particularly on colliers and specially designed ore 
carriers. Those in the Swedish and Spanish iron-ore trade to Rot- 
terdam and several United States Navy colliers are examples. Many 
of the United States Shipping Board vessels were built with double 
masts (Fig. 28). The object of the double mast is to divide the 
rigs as between port and starboard in order to have a rig for the 
wharf side and another for the water side to handle goods brought 
alongside by lighter or to work from lighters and barges on both 
beams when anchored "in stream" or at mooring posts. 

Cargo Mast. — A cargo mast is a part of the equipment of a 
wharf or pier ; its object is to facilitate the burton-and-fall two-hoist 
systems that have just been described and liberate for other uses 
the ship's burton, or outboard boom, and the winch necessary to 
operate it. With only two winches at the hatch it is possible to 
operate only one burton and fall, that is, to keep only one hook in 
movement. Burtoning to a cargo mast and operating the burton fall 
by means of a pier winch liberates one winch and the hook and the 
tackle aboard ship for other purposes, particularly for far-side or 
water-delivery freight. It very often happens that two pier winches 
are used to operate both the fall and the burton for the shore 
freight, while the deck winches are both used to operate the burton 
and fall booms to take cargo overside from lighters. In this case 
the two pier winches with the aid of one of the ship's booms are 
performing the same services that would be performed by a crane. 
This is the only way to use two forces or gangs to a hatch and work 
both sides of the ship at the same time. 

The cargo masts with which modern piers are provided are of 
several types. The oldest type consists of strong, wooden masts 



ii8 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



set near the edge of the pier and connected with one another near their 
peak by a stay ; to the stay are fixed stirrups to which blocks may be 
attached. A later type was developed by connecting the projections 
of the pier column by a rope stay. The most modern type, how- 
ever, replaces the stay by a steel beam.® 

The type of modern cargo mast now in general use is seen from 



Clf75<. 



^CAAfrO Hpi>T 




Fig. 31.— ship boom and cargo mast system. {Courtesy Department of 
Wharves, Docks and Ferries, Philadelphia.) 

the accompanying illustration (Fig. 31). The pier-shed columns 
are extended to the height of 75 or 80 feet above mean low water. 
These vertical beams are secured by horizontal beams with cross 
bracing. There is also a footwalk along the entire structure. From 
this footwalk it is possible to secure the stirrup in the horizontal 
beams to which the blocks are attached ; the whip is attached to the 



„. *{r* J^' Sfaniford, "New Cargo Masts Developed for New York Citv 
Piers." Engineering New Record, Vol. LXXVIII (1917), 453, 454. ^ 



i 



4» 



CARGO TRANSFER: I. METHODS OF TRANSFER 119 

block through which the burton 
rope passes. The horizontal beam 
is provided with holes at about 2 to 
3 feet centers. It is only necessary 
to pass a single bolt through one 
of these holes and secure it with a 
nut on the end. A "close-up" of 
two burton blocks at the cargo 
masts at one of the Chelsea piers 
at New York will illustrate this 
simple process (see Fig. 32). 

In the description of operation that follows it will be understood 
that unless otherwise stated the cargo-mast burton-and-fall system 
will be taken for granted. 




Fig. 32 — BLOCKS and shackles 

ATTACHED TO CARGO MAST 

EQUIPMENT, CHELSEA 

PIERS, N Y. 



CHAPTER VII 

CARGO TRANSFER: II. CARGO WINCHES AND SIGNALING » 

The various types of deck and dock winches for various kinds of 
work should receive careful consideration and their operation and the 
principles involved in their care should be thoroughly understood. 
It is believed that, with the work to be done by the various types of 
transfer equipment clearly in mind, a better appreciation of the im- 
portance of the winch may be gained in preparation for a more care- 
ful study of the detailed operations of cargo transfer. 






11 t 



B 



Standard Practice 

Standard specifications for cargo-handling deck winches usually 
provide for a set of four winches for each mast, or two for each hatch. 
When there is no mast stepped between the hatches, but the two 
hatches are practically continuous, the two pairs of winches are 
placed at opposite ends of the hatches. 

Rigging.—The rigging in standard practice (Figs. 33 and 34) 
fixes one boom over the hatch, and the other over the side of the 
vessel, both whips being permanently attached to a single hook, form- 
ing what is called the yard-and-stay or the burton method, described 
in detail in the preceding chapter. The winches are installed in such 
a manner that one winch runner or operator standing between them 
can see down into the hatch and operate a winch with each hand. 
Although entirely dependent upon the signalman (see below) for the 
position of the hook overside, or outboard, he is in full control of 
the operations of the draft into and out of the hold. 

These winches are very easy to operate, since each is controlled by 
a smgle lever operating the reverse valve, with the rope leading off 
the top of the drum. This one lever is moved up or down according 
as the draft is to be lifted or lowered, that is, the control lever is 
moved in the direction that the draft is to travel. Moreover the 



*By R. 8. MacEIwce. 



120 




Fia 33.— THE WHIP. This leads off the top of the drum, through a block 
fastened to the deck, and thence through the block at the peak of the boom — 
light duty rig. (Courtesy Lidgerivood.) 




Fia 34-— BLOCKS AT THE PEAK OF A BOOM. Upper oHc for lowering and 
raising the boom; lower one (hanging) through which the whips travel. 
1 his boom IS stored and not in action— heavy duty rig. {Courtesy Lidger- 



121 



122 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



speed of the winch is determined by the amount the lever is moved. 
For these reasons one inexperienced man can quickly learn to operate 
simultaneously the two winches at a hatch. 

The efficiency of a dock winch is determined not so much by its 
speed as by its dependability. The dependability in turn is de- 
termmed largely by the stanchness of its construction to resist the 
"workmg" of a vessel tossed about at sea and by its simplicity in the 
care and operation that must be left largely to longshoremen. 

Control.— Modern steam winches have throttle control. As 
wmches are operated by longshoremen in every port and not by a 
member of the ship's crew, the simplicity and reliability of the 
wmch are of the first importance. A demonstration for the type of 
wmch control that should be general is indicated by the following 
test at a factory. A day laborer handling a wheelbarrow who had 
never operated any kind of machine was chosen for this test and was 
asked to hoist and lower a 500-pound load. He was instructed as 
follows : Lift the lever to hoist the load ; lower the lever to lower the 
load ; put the lever in its first position, or simple position, with foot 
on the brake to rest or to hold the load. After several attempts this 
laborer lifted the draft 25 or 30 feet safely, rested it at will, and 
lowered it to the ground without a jolt. 

Capacity.— There has been a consistent increase in the capacity 
and lifting power of ship's deck winches for handling cargo. Modern 
ships are equipped with steam or electric winches having heavy gears, 
and with booms, cables, blocks, falls, etc., of large capacity. The' 
rigs are now capable of lifting loads of as much as 5 tons ; by combin- 
ing two lifts, even heavier drafts may be handled. As drafts usually 
run from 1,000 to 1,500 pounds, their greater capacity is for reserve 
power and for emergency use. By not overworking or overloading 
winches their life is prolonged as with any other machine. 

Kinds of Winches 

Right-hand and Left-hand Winches.— The accompanying 
view, Figure 35, looking vertically upon the deck from the mast 
will aid in understanding the general nature of the rig and layout of 
the winches. A case of merchandise with the full weight on the fall 
boom is in the hatch. A line is seen to the right hanging slack ; this 



CARGO TRANSFER: H. CARGO WINCHES 123 

IS the burton whip. The burton boom, or the outboard boom, extends 
to the right beyond the picture. 

The winches are operated by steam and the steam pipes coming 
from the boiler room extend across the deck in the open air to the 
winches. Great care must be taken in the installation of steam-pipe 




Fig. 35. — MASTHEAD VIEW OF RIGHT AND LEFT HAND WINCHES, WINCH RUNNER, 

BOOM, DRAFT AND HATCH OPENING. {Courtesy Ltdgenwood.) 
connections to deck winches, as the working of the ship will loosen 
the pipe and cause loss of steam and inefficiency. Unfortunately this 
is a condition that is rather frequent. 

Hughes classifies winches as spur-geared, friction-geared, and 
electric winches.^ 

Two steam winches are shown in the illustration, a left-hand 
winch and a right-hand winch, with the operator in the middle, his 
right and left hands controlling, respectively, the right-hand and left- 



*Chas. H. Hftghes, Handbook of Ship Calculations, Construction, and 
Operation. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1916, 626-628. 



■ija 



124 



WHARF MANAGExMENT 




hand winches. The winches, if reversed in their position, would still 
be right-hand and left-hand. But in that case it would take two 
men to run them. The winches are constructed in this particular 
fashion in order to enable one man to run one with his right hand 
and one with his left hand and to bring the two machines closer to- 
gether to economize space and to give facility for one-man opera- 
tion. Stevedores sometimes call them the far-side winch and the near- 
side winch, determined by the position of the winch in relation to 
the draft. 

There are several features besides control that make the winches 
of left-hand and right-hand pattern. The drum ends are en the 
opposite side of the winch from the lever handle, the rope or cable 
winds from the end of the drum away from the operator, that is, in 
all hoisting machinery, as a rule, the cables wind away from the 
gears. It will be noted that the gears are on the right-hand side 
m the right-hand winch, and on the left-hand side in the left-hand 
winch. This is to afford more direct application of power to the 
drum end. The brake is on the left end of the drum on the 
fight-hand winch, and the opposite on the left-hand winch. Of 
course, the brake must be on the same side as the throttle. The 
intake steam pipe and the exhaust steam pipe are also reversed in 
the two winches. 

The Winch Drum.— The winch drum should not be less than 
16 inches in diameter, otherwise the bending strains will be very 
destructive to the rope. The ideal winch should have a range in 
speed from 50 to 450 feet per minute and a range in load from 100 
to 10,000 pounds. The capacity of the drum should be not less than 
5®0 feet of three-quarter inch rope. 

The Drum End,— The drum end should also be of ample diame- 
ter. Stevedores hoist cargo with manila rope looped around the 
drum end. This is rapid and flexible, but expensive, as there is con- 
siderable slip and friction on the drum which wears or burns manila 
rope very rapidly. One seldoms sees a ship in New York ready to 
discharge its cargo without finding most of the rope brand new. 
The short ends of old rope are cut into convenient lengths for rig- 
gmg, for making slings, and for other such purposes. 

Special Types of Winches.-In general, many of the smaller 
types of vessels are designed to carry special cargo; consequently a 
one-design winch does not work efficiently in all cases; even on the 



CARGO TRANSFER: II. CARGO WINCHES 125 

larger ships it is better to have more than one design of winch. In 
loading hay, for instance, a friction winch will work faster than a 
steam spur-geared or electric winch, while, on the other hand, for 
loading barrels, safes, and other heavy drafts a spur gear is prac- 
tically a guaranty that the draft will not go through the bottom 
of the ship. 

There is not always a separate winch for each fall. Most vessels 
have two winches and many have more at each hatch. There are 
three types of winches, according to Barnes.^ The first type has 
only a central drum; another has only an end drum, and the third 
has a central as well as end drums. The third type is most com- 
mon. The burton is wound around and attached to the central drum, 
the up-and-down falls are wound on the drum ends but are not 
attached. It is the duty of the drum-end man to cause a shortening 
or a lengthening of the fall as necessary. By using the three drums, 
one winch can handle three whips. 

The selection of the different designs of winches to meet dif- 
ferent uses may be illustrated by an example. A buyer came to a 
certain winch salesman and made known to him that he wanted a 
winch. The salesman described in great detail the merits of the 
spur-geared steam-controlled winch, that is, the winch that started, 
raised, lowered, and came to rest from the control of the steam 
throttle working through gears. But the buyer said: "Yes, that is 
all very well, but I need a single-friction winch, a winch driven by 
steam but with the transmission controlled by a friction clutch instead 
of by the regulation of the flow of steam to the cylinders, that is, 
by a throttle." The salesman, still thinking of steam, again extolled 
the merits of his steam winches. Finally the buyer said : 'T do not 
believe you understand what I want to use this winch for. I am a 
fish dealer and I load large drafts of fish into my boat. The steam 
winch is too slow because it will not drop my load quickly enough. 
With the single friction winch, as soon as the draft is over the hatch 
the friction can be released and the load dropped into the hold. The 
fish will not go through the bottom of the boat, no damage is done 
to the boat, and much time is saved." Such a winch for loading 
general merchandise, particularly bars of iron and other heavy 
articles will be dangerous because the load, if inadvertently released, 
would go through the bottom of the boat. 



'Barnes, T/ie Longshoremen, 36, 37. 



126 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



!! 



For heavy duty a two-speed ship winch is desirable. It is designed 
for use where heavy loads are to be handled on a derrick boom in 
addition to lighter loads on a general cargo boom, that is, it is con- 
structed to lift twice the weight at half the speed. The slow speed, 
high duty, compound gearing, is used for the heavy load, obviating 
the necessity for parts of tackle otherwise required. A single gearing 
handles the light load at twice the speed. The throttle valve and 
reverse may be interconnected and controlled by a single lever if 
desired, but ordinarily separate levers for throttle and reverse are 
furnished. When it is desired to work with the single gear the 
clutch on the crank shaft is thrown into gear, and the crank-shaft 
pinion will directly drive the drum gear, and the load may be hoisted 
and lowered by steam ; or the clutch can be thrown out of gear and 
the load held or lowered by the foot-operated brake which is fitted to 
the drum flange. To handle heavy weights at slower speed the clutch 
is thrown into gear with the pinion operating the compound gearing 
and the load hoisted, held, and lowered by steam. When working 
with single gear the clutch on the intermediate shaft may be moved 
out of connection and this shaft left at rest. 

Electric Ship's Winches.— One manufacturer* presents the 
case of electric winches as follows: 

On a number of ships it is desirable to use electric winches for 
cargo handling. This is particularly the case on motor ships and 
on other vessels where dynamos of large capacity are installed. 
Electric winches present new problems not encountered in steam- 
winch practice. The motors, controllers, and resistances must be 
made absolutely water-tight to insure proper working. Should water 
enter the casings of these parts the damage would be considerable, 
and would probably necessitate shop repairs. In some cases only the 
motor IS mounted on the bedplate of the winch, the controller and 
resistances being placed under the deck in a dust-proof casing. 

Fuse or circuit breakers are not furnished with the hoists, but are 
a part of the wiring circuit. One or the other is absolutely essential. 
They should be adjusted for not more than 50 per cent overload. 

Either direct or alternating current can be used. Winches can 
be equipped with either type of motor. 

It is found desirable in certain cases to use a continuous run- 
ning motor, and to use the friction drum entirely for controlling the 
loa d. This requires a speci al type of friction drum. The continu- 

*Lidgerwood Manufacturing Company! ' 



CARGO TRANSFER: II. CARGO WINCHES 127 

ous running motor has been found particularly desirable where 
winch heads only are employed. Stevedores handle cargo by run- 
ning the winch heads continuously and by tightening or slackening 
the rope on the winch head as required to hoist or lower the load. 
With direct-current motors this requires that the motor have the 
proper winding to prevent its overspeeding when running without 
load. 

Solenoid brakes are furnished when ordered. They are generally 
desirable on electric hoists, as they provide an automatic safety device 
for holding the load when the current is shut off by the operator or 
by accident. 

Dock Winches.— Proper handling equipment on the piers and 
wharves is as important as on the vessels. Wharf equipment is used 
not only to assist in loading and unloading cargo from vessels, but 
also to handle cargo on the wharves, where it is frequently piled for 




Fig. 36.— electric dock winch— stationary. (Courtesy Lidgercwood.) 

storage or has to be loaded and unloaded from cars, trucks, lighters 
etc. Electric winches (as shown in Fig. 36) are preferable to 
steam winches for wharf use. The mobility of the winch is one of 
its most important features, and electric winches may be moved 
from point to point, modern piers being constructed with electric 
wiring and plugs at frequent intervals. Connections at these plugs 
with flexible cables make it possible to move the winch to any point 
on the wharf. ^ ^ 

Winches on the pier would seem at first thought to be an unnec- 



128 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



essary expense, since in most cases they simply replace a ship winch, 
but they have proved advantageous for the following reasons : 

1. They can be used for handling lighter cargoes or in 
moving freight on the pier. Therefore they accelerate 
the loading or discharge of a vessel. 

2. Since they are in almost constant use they are more 
liable to be kept in efficient working condition than the 
ship's winches. 

3. If run by electric power, as many are, they have several 
advantages over steam winches — they have greater 
speed; their average operating cost is lower; they are 
safer, because of the greater power and uniformity of 
speed ; they operate at short notice and eliminate stand- 
by charges when delays occur; they are not subject to 
frozen pipes or cylinders; and by use of the double 
portable master-controller they can be operated from 
any convenient point on the pier or vessel. 

4. Frequently the ship cannot handle the cargo rapidly 
either because of lack of workable winches or a poor 
fefd of steam. In such cases the pier winches prove of 
great value.'* 

Another electric dock winch is shown in Figure 36a mounted on 
wheels with wheel chocks. This apparatus has several distinctive 
features. It is a combination of two complete single-drum winches 
mounted on the same bedplate, with the drum and motor shafts in 
alignment. The motor shafts are arranged for interconnection so 
that the combined power of the two motors may be applied to either 
of the drums, the other drum being idle. With the motor shafts dis- 
connected, each motor with the corresponding drum and winch head 
operates independently. This arrangement gives an opportunity to 
double the lifting power of any single drum and drum end. The 
operation of the whip is the same for any drum and drum-end winch. 
The solenoid brake, which is lifted by magnetism when the current 
is turned on and set with a powerful spring when there is no current, 
is plainly visible in the illustration. The solenoid brake is a char- 
acteristic safety feature of all electrical hoisting machinery and 
elevators. 



J. A. Jackson and R. H. Rogers, "The Status of Cargo Handling in 
American Marine Terminals." International Marine Engineering, Vol. 
XXI (1916), 356, 357. Also International Marine Engineering, Vol. XXIII 
(1918), 343. 344- 



CARGO TRANSFER: II. CARGO WINCHES 129 

The control of this winch is a particular feature. The large box 
to the left of the machine is an automatic controller. The operator 
carries a rheostat suspended from his neck, similar to the car-switch 
control in an electric elevator, and this switch is connected with the 
controller on the winch by a live cable. This arrangement makes it 
possible for the winch runner or operator to move about and to 
observe the position of the draft. He is enabled thereby to overlook 




Fig. 36a. — ELECTRIC DOCK WINCH WITH PORTABLE CONTROL SWITCH. 

{Courtesy Lidgerivood.) 

the operation throughout, dispensing with a signal man in most cases. 

Many modern ships are abandoning the steam winch for the 
electric winch. This is particularly true in motor ships where no 
steam is maintained in boilers, except for heating purposes. The 
introduction of electric winches with a portable controller will do 
away with the hand signal man and in many cases with one winch 
runner. With a right-hand and left-hand control of two distinct 
drums, one operator can walk from the side of the ship to the hatch- 
way, control both the burton and the fall at will, and perform the 
entire operation of unloading. This would reduce the winch person- 
nel to the same as that of a crane operator and in addition would 
eliminate the signal man. With the development of motor ships 
this type of electric winch on deck, as well as on the piers, is bound 
to come into universal practice. 

A single-drum electric winch mounted on wheels is shown in 
Figure 37. The truck is furnished with holding dogs that are 
driven into the wooden deck of the pier. This type of winch is 
particularly adapted for handling freight on the pier in small drafts 
because of its mobility. 



^ n tU LnM.. :. 



r 



hi 



130 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



Where electricity is not available, or where it is not practicable 
to keep up steam, as on a motor ship, or where it would not pay to 
keep up steam for any length of time, there has been devised a gas- 
engine winch. This type is adaptable to sailing vessels with auxil- 
iary power and is also a valuable machine for lighters. The winch is 
quite similar in its operation and function to the contractor's gasoline 
winch that is used in building construction. 




FlC. 37. — PORTABLE ELECTRIC DOCK WINCH— LIGHT DUTY. 

{Courtesy Lidgeriuood.) 
Care of Electric Winches.— T\\t care of electric winches is similar 
to the care of any other electrical hoisting apparatus. This will be 
described under Warehousing in the section devoted to elevators 
and lifts. The care required is the same as that for any other winch, 
steam or electric, the principle being that all running parts must be 
kept carefully oiled, free from grit and dirt, must be kept in align- 
ment and protected from exposure. It may be summarized as 
follows : 

1. All running parts must be carefully greased and oiled. 

2. After loading dusty or gritty cargo the spur gears should 
be scraped. 

3. When not in operation the winches should be kept covered 
with a tarpaulin or other waterproof cover. 

4. The steam pipe should be carefully watched and the joints 
frequently repacked to prevent loss of steam and ineffi- 
ciency. 

In general, no machine should be called upon to perform its 
maximum capacity through long periods of time. A machine will 
break down through overwork as will the human body. 



\ 



CARGO TRANSFER: II. CARGO WINCHES 131 

The lack of adequate transfer equipment is in many cases the 
reason that there is not simultaneous loading of all hatches. D. J. 
Murphy, Jr., a stevedore in Philadelphia, has said that of all the 
ships operating under the American flag to-day, so far as he knows 
them, there is only one (the Felix Taussig) whose wmch system is 
sufficiently well planned and built to permit all hatches to be worked 
efficiently at one time. As an example of the poorly constructed 
vessel he quotes the case of the KeketticuU which arrived in Philadel- 
phia from San Francisco with 9,000 tons of flour. Although there 
were 170 pounds of steam in the boiler, many of the winches could 
not be worked, and, as a result, only two gangs could be used on the 
five hatches. He estimates the time lost in discharge as at least 
three days. He further states that the EdgemonU the Edgemore, 
and the Edgewood, all new vessels belonging to the United States 
Shipping Board, have such a faulty steam-feed system that No. 1 
hatch cannot be worked at the same time as No. 3. He lays the 
blame largely on the ship architect « for installing boilers or feed 
pipes that are too small to give the winches the proper amount of 
steam. Others ^ lay the blame, not on the equipment itself, but on 
the handling of that equipment, pointing out that the donkey engines 
are not kept in proper running order and that steam is wasted by the 
winchmen. Undoubtedly there is truth in both views ; the laborers 
are careless and the architect has not taken this carelessness into 
consideration when designing the vessel. But after the vessel has 
been put in service, the best remedy is to keep the equipment at 
maximum efficiency, and the American masters are particularly lax in 
this regard. A comparison is often drawn betwe en the efficiency of 

•That the fault may be with the owner rather than with the architect 
is indicated by the following quotation from the Pacific Marine Revie<w, 

° "A feeHng has^ prevailed among shipowners in the past that a winch 
being placed on deck, exposed to the weather, need not have the same re- 
finement in design and construction that would be required of an engine-room 
equipment. This is true so far as the exterior finish of the winch is con- 
cerned, but the mechanical efficiency of a winch on deck is just as important 
as that of a ship's engines. This fact has been lost sight of by many owners 
and officers. They have called for rugged, rough winches to stand exposure, 
forgetting that these qualities can be combined with mechanical excellence. 
The result has been carelessly designed steam passages, resulting in back 
pressure; bearings that are seldom in proper alignment carelessly con- 
structed and filled with cheapest bearing metal, gears that do not mesh 
properly, and cylinders bored out rough. One need only listen to the racket 
made by an ordinary ship's winch to appreciate the loss of power. 1 his is 
accepted by many ship's officers as being natural and proper in a winch- 
it is their accepted standard of a winch. However, these conditions have 

changed." ^.^ , . j* 

' Notably Mr. Loveland, another Philadelphia stevedore, who disagrees 

altogether with Mr. Murphy. 



132 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



I 



the equipment on Scandinavian and American vessels, much to the 
disadvantage of the American. It is easy to allow equipment not 
used on the voyage to fall into disrepair, and it is difficult for the 
new master, especially, to realize the excessive cost of such neglect. 
It not only prevents the working of all hatches, but it delays transfer 
at each hatch. He must continually remember that time lost in port 
is a large item in operating expense, even though it does not appear 
on the cost sheet.® 

Starting the Draft. — A heavy load must be started gradually. 
Care must be exercised to prevent it from colliding with the hatch 
coamings and other objects in the hold or on the pier. Also, great 
care and judgment must be shown in hooking on a heavy draft; 
much more than in the handling of light drafts. There is a great 
rope stress developed in starting drafts quickly. A five-ton draft 
started too quickly may produce a rope stress of seven or eight tons. 
Repeated too often, the rope may break when the load is in the air. 
The winch runner must be carefully instructed as to starting and 
stopping in order not to cause undue strain upon cables, blocks, 
machinery, and other rigging. Also, if the draft catches under a 
corner of the hatch or the pier shed, or in any other way becomes 
fouled, quick action must be taken to stop the winches. 

Signaling 

Signaling in loading or unloading is very important. Signaling 
is the same whether the transfer is being done with ship's tackle or 
with shore cranes. Each time a draft is transferred or a hook is 
returned to its original position to receive another draft, a series of 
movements is necessary on the part of the winch runner or the crane 
operator. It is impossible for a winch runner to be in a position to 
sec both ends of the movement. The same applies to a crane 
operator. The man running the winch can see into the hatchway 
and can control the movement of the hook so long as it is in the 
hatch square. He is not in a position to watch the movement of the 
hook and the draft overside on the lighter or the wharf deck or back 
in the hold. It is important when loading a vessel to stop the draft 
before it goes to the floor or "ceiling" of the ship, and then lower it 
gently to the point of deposit ; and when dragging a draft out from 

" Thomas- R. Taylor, Stoixage of Ship Cargoes. 



CARGO TRANSFER: II. CARGO WINCHES 



133 



\ 



behind the hatch opening in the hold additional provision must be 
made for relaying signals. It is essential that the winch runner be 
stopped on an instant's notice if the draft catches or fouls anywhere, 
otherwise the gears, rigging, draft, or the ship itself may be in- 
jured. Also, for the safety of the entire stevedore gang, a uniform 
and well-understood system of signals is absolutely essential. 

The signal man is usually the captain of the stevedore gang. He 
is the boss stevedore for some twenty or more men working in a gang. 
Usually one gang works with each fall or hook, therefore for every 
hook in operation in the hatch in transfer movement there must be 
a signal man, as one man can watch only one hook throughout 
its cycle. He paces back and forth with each draft from the ship's 
rail to the hatch coaming, or from the hatch coaming to the ship's 
rail. 

Uniform signals do not exist. Each signal man seems to have 
his own signals with which his particular winch runner is familiar. 
In spite of the diversified methods in signaling the differences from 
one hatch captain to another are rather in the nature of mannerisms 
than in a fundamental difference in the signal. As in all such trades 
or vocations, the signals develop naturally just as many words in 
our language have been developed by imitation of sound or motion. 

In order to develop uniformity and to show the fundamental 
principles in practice in signaling, a description of the various 
movements, with photographs,^ of a gang captain of particular 
efficiency and intelligence are shown herewith. This particular gang 
captain was a captain in the United States Army in charge of a 
stevedore company in France. He stated that he earns more as a 
longshoreman gang captain than he did as an army captain. His 
hourly rate is 5 cents higher than 
that of the deck men, that is, at the 
last rating he would be receiving 
85 cents an hour for an 8-hour 
day, and $1,273/^ for over- 
time. 

Stop, — The signal to stop is al- 
ways the arm centered with the 
palm down. See Figure 'xS. -, „ 

^ b O Fic jg. — STOP. 




•The photographs taken by the author of actual operations arc re- 
printed here only as sketches. 



\ 



mK-~-^\iSm*'' 



134 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 






t 




Fig. 39. — CONTINUE lowering. 



Lower Slowly.— The draft is being lowered on to a lighter. The 
signal "stop" has held the draft a few feet above the deck of the 
lighter; from this position it is lowered slowly to the deck by the 

signal man moving his hand or the 

— ST — r rT>C7"W ' fingers of his hand downward in a 

>'VN. \ vx/ wi short, quick motion, until the draft 

has reached the deck. See Figure 

Continue Lowering, — Continue 
lowering is indicated by holding 
the position of Figure 39. 

Lower Away, — To lower away 
continuously until halted, the 

forearm or the entire arm is pulled downward until it hangs by the 

side. This motion is made decisive. It is intended that the draft 

should be lowered considerably and at a rapid speed. 

Up Slowly, — The hand is ex- 
tended with the palm up and the 

fingers closed or the hands raised 

repeatedly from the wrist with a 

sharp movement. See Figure 40. 

In pulling up on the hook until 

it engages the rope, and until the 

sling is taut in order to have the 

bite driven down on the rove, the 

motion of hauling up, or holding 

ready to lift, is indicated by the 

palm extended in rest, or moving the fingers up. See Figure 41. 

The curve of the wrist in Figure 40 shows the changed position for 

the short movement. 

The signal man in Figure 42 
is indicating to "hoist slowly" by 
moving his first two fingers and 
thumb, or bringing them together 
in a series of pinches. He is look- 
ing into the hold at this particular 

point. 
Fig. 41.— up. ^ . , . 1 1 u 

Sometimes the signal men hold 

a short stick or a broken piece of pineboard that is easy to see, and 



X ^cv ^<-^ H // ff 

\ \1 "'/ L f 



Fig. 40. — UP SLOWLY (short move- 
ments OF the wrist). 




CARGO TRANSFER: II. CARGO WINCHES 135 

move this stick in small oscillations in the same manner as indicated 
in the other signals. 

It behooves every one working 
around a ship transferring cargo 
to keep an eye on the signal man, 
and any person responsible at all 
for the loading and discharging of 
the vessel should take great care 
that the winch runner and the sig- 
nal man are in complete accord as 
to the signals. There is consider- 
able danger connected with the 
longshoremen's trade in loading 

and discharging ships, and attention to these matters will save much 
loss of property, and more than that, loss of life. 




Fig. 42. — UP SLOWLY. Signaled 
by bringing fingers and thumb 
together in pinches. 



amm 



»,mm mm MMMuaxBaii i 



h ! 



i 



CHAPTER VIII 

CARGO TRANSFER: III. DRAFTS* 

In practically all cases of transfer of cargo between ship and 
shore, except in those few cases where continuous motion machinery, 
such as belt conveyors, banana unloaders, etc., is used, cargo is 

transferred by drafts. A "draft" is a sin- 
gle lift of merchandise, often a collection 
of small packages, such as barrels, bags, 
crates, bound together in a sling and 
hooked on to the end of the cable that is 
being operated by the winch or crane. The 
arrangement of the draft so as not to break 
the merchandise or cause other damage re- 
quires considerable attention to details. 
Drafts are similar in composition regard- 
less of whether the transfer equipment be 
cranes or ship's tackle. Drafts are usually 
about 1,000 to 2,000 pounds in weight. It 
SjJ^rlf//noJi\\ ^^^ ^^^'^ found that faster work is possible 

if less is taken at a time. The modern 
cargo booms will lift 5 tons. 

The hook requires no particular ex- 
FiG. 43. \ y planation. It is well curved so that it is 

not easy to slip the sling out of the hook 
by accident. It is spliced securely to the end of the wire or manila 
rope cable (Fig. 43). 

Slings 

The draft is lifted by "hooking on" to a sling that may be of 
various types. The simple rope sling (Fig. 44) is most generally 
used for boxes, bales, crates, bags, etc. It is a length of hemp rope 
between 12 and 24 feet long, with the ends spliced together to make 
it endless. These slings are made by the longshoremen from ends 

* By R. S. MacElwee and T. R. Taylor. Some field work and the analy- 
sis of movements with tables and sketches, by L. H. H. Haight and M. M. 
Grass for the United States Shipping Board, Emergency Fleet Corporation. 

136 



'• 



CARGO TRANSFER: III. DRAFTS 



1-J7 



of manila rope whips which have become worn in spots doing duty 
as burton or fall. Although the rope when spliced is "endless," the 
sling itself, when laid out on the floor to receive its load, has two 



/?oJ!>e S//J7g. 




Fig. 44. 

ends and two sides. To load the sling a plank is laid on the pier 
vdeck and the sides of the sling are made parallel with the plank. 
The boxes or bags are piled on the plank and the two ends of the 
sling brought together above and around the merchandise. As soon 
as a sling is put around the draft 



vnj rove 



^ hiH 



each end is used for a different 

purpose and is given a different 

name. Care is taken to have one 

end of the sling considerably 

longer than the other. Before the 

draft is raised the long end of 

the sling is passed through the 

short end. The long end is called 

the "long rove," or simply "the 

rove," while the short end 

through which the rove is passed 

is called the "bite" (Fig. 45). 

The rove or long end is put on 

the burton hook and when the 

draft is raised so that the sling is 

taut the longshoreman drives the bite down tight on the rove with 

a short length of pipe or piece of wood. 

A web sling is the usual rope 
sling with the central portion, per- 
haps one-half or two-thirds of the 
length, "webbed" or fastened to- 
gether by sacking or canvas duck 
webbing similar to a hammock. 
The ends are left free to act as 
bite and long rove. This type of 




Fig. 45. 




Fig. 46. — A WEB SLING FOR SOFT 
BAGS. 



138 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 




Fig. 47. 



sling is used primarily in lifting bags of sugar and such merchandise 
in bags that might be cut open or burst by the pressure of the rope 
of the sling alone (Fig. 46). 

Cant hooks are used to transfer barrels (Fig. 47). For han- 
dling barrels, unless the same are handled by the ordinary rope sling, 

very often the single large hook 
at the end of the burton fall is 
replaced by four hooks in pairs ; 
each pair to lift the end of two 
barrels, that is, one hook at each 
end of each barrel. This form 
of hitch for the draft is some- 
times used on cases, or boxes, 
but is a dangerous method of 
transfer (Fig. 48). 

The net sling is used in 
transferring small packages of 
miscellaneous size and shapes 
that are of sufficient strength in packing to resist the pressure of their 
neighbors in the net when the four corners are drawn together. Pas- 
sengers' trunks are usually transferred in slings. The net sling is 
usually constructed during slack 
hours by longshoremen familiar and 
skillful in splicing. When the cor- 
ners are brought together the long 
loop (rove) is passed through the 
short loops and a hook passed 
through the rove. Slings are also 
used between the ship and the 
shore under a draft to catch any Fig. 48. 

packages in case a draft should slip and drop some of its load. 
The platform sling or airplane is a heavy timber skid with ropes 

spliced to the four corners and ending in 
an iron ring or rope loop through which the 
hook of the fall may be passed (Fig. 49). 
In order to arrive at a knowledge of a 
more or less uniform method of handling 
drafts at the various piers along the At- 
„ lantic seaboard, L. H. Haieht, and 

Fig. 49. — PLATFORM SLING OR ^m ^ r y ^ x^i 

AIRPLANE. M. M. Grass, of the Emergency Fleet 



4MW«/XMf/W: 





CARGO TRANSFER; III. DRAFTS 



139 




Fig. 50. SLINGING A SAFE. 



Corporation, made a close study of the transfer of cargo on seventeen 
different piers. As a result of their investigation, made especially 
in the preparation of this work, the following analysis of movements 
and diagrams are submitted. The 
sketches and tables of movement 
were prepared by these gentlemen 
especially for this volume. 

Transfer of Freight 

Loading a Safe. — As an ex- 
ample of a heavy draft in a single 
package, the introductory analysis will be that of the transfer of a 
safe (Fig. 50). As these movements are characteristic of many 

other drafts and transfers, the sub- 
sequent drafts will refer back to the 
case of the safe. It is, therefore, de- 
sirable to understand the various 
movements in the loading of this 
safe preliminary to the study of 
other drafts. (See next page.) 

Loading Barrels and Hogs- 
beads. — -'Various methods of sling- 
ing barrels and hogsheads are 
shown in the accompanying diagrams. Barrels are easy to handle 
on the pier or in the hold because they roll, but they are difficult to 
sling properly. The method used 
depends largely on the form, weight, 
and strength of the barrel. Per- 
haps the most common practice is to 
sling two at a time ("married") by 
use of cant hooks, but this cannot be 
done if the chimes of the barrel will 
not support its weight. The Ameri- 
can Sugar Refining Company rec- 
ommends that barrels of sugar be 
transferred by nets, but their rec- 
ommendation is not adopted by most stevedores. 

Loading Bags of Sugar, Grain, Coffee, etc. — The sling (a 
web sling. Figs. 46 and 53) is laid flat on the deck of the pier and 




Fig. 51. — BARRELS SLUNG 



"married." 




Fig. 52. — ^SLINGING A hogshead. 



140 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



CARGO TRANSFER: III. DRAFTS 



1^ ' ^ 



the bags are placed across it. The ends of the sling are then brought 
together, and the rove is placed through the bite and attached to the 
hook of the fall. 



Loading a Safe 

Classes of Work Done 



Men Required Individual Duties 



One superintend- 
ent 



Superintends entire 
work of loading and 
unloading ships 



One stevedore 



Supervises the stowing 
through hatch ; su 
pervises the discharg- 
ing from hold 



Two deck foremen 



One checker 



Two slingers 



Loads the ship on paper, sees that 
the ship is loaded evenly on both 
wings and with a drag after 



Supervises loading his 
end of ship; super 
vises discharging his 
end of ship 



Jobs Done 



Forms the shape (gets the men in 
line) ; calls the gangs; places the 
gangs; keeps the gangs filled; 
sees that the ship is loaded as the 
superintendent has planned on 
paper 



Gets required number of gangs for 
the hatch; places the gangs on 
the job; looks after each detail of 
loading and unloading; keeps 
gangs filled 



Counts all men and 
drafts 



Work on pier helping 
prepare drafts for 
loading and unload- 
ing 



One gangway 
man 



Supervises signaling 



One winch runner 



Drum-end man 
(burton fall) 



Drum-end man 
(up-and-down 
fall) 



Starts winch ; stops 
winch 



Handles fall on drums 



Handles fall on drum 



Handles slings, trucks, etc. ; rolls 
or places drafts to nearest loading 
point 



Signals to raise draft from pier or 
hold ; signals to stop draft on pier 
or in hold; signals to raise fall 
from pier or hold 



Puts two turns of fall on drum; 
waits for signal; at signal, puts 
enough turns on drum to lift 
draft; at signal, tightens fall 
enough to lift draft; keeps fall 
tight by coiling; to lower draft 
loosens fall on drum 



Waits for signal ; at signal, puts 
two or three turns of fall on drum 
to take up slack; puts two or three 
more turns of fall on drum to 
lift draft; puts two or three more 
turns of fall to take full draft; 
lowers draft through hatch. 



141 




Fig. 53. — A WEB SLING DRAFT 
OF BAGS. 



The number of bags to the draft varies with the commodity and 
with other factors. Six or seven bags of raw sugar will make a draft 
of about 2,000 pounds and this is a convenient weight on the customs 
scales. In handling refined sugar the 
common draft is twelve bags. 

Loading Beef.—Perhaps the load- 
ing of beef requires the least skill in 
handling of any freight making up the 
cargo for a ship. It is generally loaded 
directly from the truck to the ship in 
order to get it into the refrigerators as 
soon as possible. It is handled in a 
"net sling" which is about 6 by 8 feet, 
with 8-inch mesh. The sling has a rope 
around the edge, with a loop in the cen- 
ter of each side and each end. The loops on one side and one 
end are longer than the loops in the opposite side and end. 
The long loops are called "roves," and the short loops are called 
"bites." 

When the truck is backed to the nearest loading point and the 
net sling laid flat on the floor of the pier, about ten quarters of beef 
arc tossed into the net sling ; the edges are folded over ; the roves 
are passed through the bites and on to the burton hook ; and, when 
the signal is given to hoist away, the sling is drawn taut and the beef 
is held securely until lowered into the hold. 

At New York in handling 
frozen or chilled meat arriving in 
refrigerator cars, the cars are 
floated alongside the ship and the 
cargo loaded overside from off- 
shore. This is slow and expen- 
sive for ordinary cargo but of ob- 
vious advantage in the movement 
of all refrigerator groups from 
car to ship with little loss of temperature. 

Discharging frozen mutton and other meat at London has become 
almost entirely a mechanical, continuous motion ; belt conveyors with 
steel baskets operating similar to a banana unloader are lowered 
into the hold. Once out of the hold, the halves or quarters are 



•^.rzrz ■■■■■■■>■' 

•«■■*■« ■« ■■ ■ ■ K ■ I J I 

't'-Mm rmum m m ■ ■ ■ ■ 1 1.| .( i 



Fig. 54. — A NET SLING FOR BEEF. 



142 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 




hooked on to a meat hook on wheels that travel by gravity or chain 

propulsion along the wharf to waiting cars (goods wagons) or 

drays. 

Loading Eggs. — Eggs are packed in rather flimsy crates and 

therefore must be handled carefully. In order to eliminate han- 
dlings the crates should be stored on 
the transit shed as near as possible 
to the picking-up place, or should 
be moved direct from the car or 
truck to the sling. If the truck 
can be backed up to the loading 
point, one man on the truck can 

Fig. ss.^^w^form sling with pass the crates to a second on the 
ANGLE IRONS TO PROTECT pier flooi , who placcs them cross- 

FRAGILE CASES. . t /• 

Wise on a platform, carrier, or 
"airplane" (Fig. §§), Twelve cases make a draft. In order to 
protect the cases from being crushed by the carrier ropes, angle 
irons are placed at the outside edges of the upper tier. These 
angle irons, or "bosses," have holes through which the ropes pass. 
The lifting pressure is thus distributed along the crates. 

In swinging the draft care must be exercised to avoid bumping 
it against the sides of the vessel, the hatch coamings, or the decks. 
This method is used for all flimsy containers of a regular shape, 
such as crated fruit. 

Loading Dried Apples. — Dried or evaporated apples in cases 
are generally loaded on a special platform, or airplane. Since the 
boxes are light in weight, about 
twenty are put in each draft, mak- 
ing a total weight of between 1,500 
and 2,000 pounds. The ordinary 
form of airplane is shown in the 
accompanying diagram (Fig. §$). 
To keep the carrier ropes from 
crushing the boxes, angle irons are p^^ g__ 
sometimes used as described in the 
discussion of loading eggs. 

Oranges, grapefruit, and similar commodities are handled in 

about the same way. 

Loading Pigs and Billets. — Billets and pigs of metals were 
at one time generally transferred by use of chain slings, and some of 




56. — PLATFORM FOR LOADING 
IRON AND OTHER METALS 
IN PIGS. 



CARGO TRANSFER: III. DRAFTS 



H3 




the smaller steamship companies still use this method, but modern 
practice is to use a special airplane (Fig. 56). This is a platform, 2 
to 6 feet square, with a ribbed floor and with boards 4 to 6 inches 
high around three sides. Ropes attached as shown in the diagram 
balance the load when it is raised, 
although there is danger that some 
of the pigs will fall out of the open 
side if the airplane is tilted in that 
direction. 

Loading the airplane simply con- 
sists in throwing on the pigs until 
the proper weight is obtained. To 
unload, one rope or sling is detached^^^- 57— chain sling for steel 
from the hook, so that hoisting away 

on the other rope will dump the pigs or bars in the hold. This is a 
quick way of handling small pieces that are not damaged by rough 
treatment. 

Loading Steel Rails. — An exceptionally high degree of skill is 
required to sling steel rails, pipe, iron lamp-posts, and similarly 
constructed objects, in order that the work may be done quickly and 
that the bars may be carried securely and at the proper angle. 

A different type of sling is used in this case. It consists of one 
or two chains forged to a ring at one end and terminating in a hook 

at the other, quite similar to cant hooks 
just described but removable from the 
fall (Figs. 57 and 58). When handling 
rails, the hook of the chain is passed 
around the end of a bundle of four or 
five rails and hooked on to the chain 
with the point directed toward the long 
part of the draft. The ring is then 
placed on the hook of the fall, and the 
draft is raised far enough to allow a 
block of wood to be set under the end. The draft is lowered on 
this block and the chain is slid along the rails for a distance of about 
one-third their length. It is now in a position that allows the 
draft when elevated to hang securely and almost perpendicularly. 
The rails can thus be lowered into the hold and can swing toward 
the stowing point more easily than if they were in a horizontal posi- 




FlG. 58. — ^double chain SLING 
FOR large iron PIPES. 



144 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



h I 




Fig. 59. — SLINGING AUTOMOBILES. 



tion. Care must be taken that the chain sling is tight and that it 
exerts sufficient pressure on all the rails or pipes in the draft to 
prevent any one from slipping out and going through the bottom 

of the ship or the lighter. All such 
long, heavy articles are troublesome 
to load. 

Loading Automobiles. — Auto- 
mobiles for overseas shipments are 
usually partially demounted and 
packed in large, strong boxes, about 
4 by 6 by 12 feet in dimensions. 
The large cases for the army trucks 
during the World War were about 3 by 4 by 23 feet. These 
boxes, after being landed on the pier, are rolled on iron pipes 
to the nearest picking-up point, and the sling is placed around them. 
The sling is placed just to one side of the center of the box. A line 
is made fast to the sling, passed around the long end of the box, and 
fastened to the sling on the opposite side. This permits the box to 
tip a*- an angle which makes it easy to lower through the hatch, 
and yet prevents it from slipping out of the sling. It is best to have 
the farside winch take the slack of the sling before tying on the line. 
Loading Assembled Locomotives. — The accompanying dia- 
gram (Fig. 60) illustrates the 
method of loading locomotives, 
used in forwarding shipments to 
the American Expeditionary 
Forces. The locomotives were run 
upon car floats, which were towed 
to the side of the floating derrick 
stationed alongside the receiving ^'^' 6o.-loading locomotive. 
vessel. Only a few vessels having exceptionally large hatches could 
be used to carry these assembled locomotives. 

In the frontispiece the locomotive has been raised from the car 
float and swung over the crane barge. When the guy line is changed 
it will be raised, swung over the hatch of the vessel to the left, and 
lowered into the hold. The transfer of the locomotive, weighing 
150,500 pounds, can be accomplished in twenty minutes. It is 
necessary to keep the locomotive "head up" in spite of the tendency 
to revolve with the crane. This is accomplished by means of 
guy ropes. 




f 



CARGO TRANSFER: III. DRAFTS 

Most Important Types of Containers 



HS 



The twelve or fourteen pieces of cargo listed and described above 
do not include all of the package freight a stevedore has to handle, 
but were selected because they cover every operation in loading and 
discharging. To list more would simply mean a useless repetition. 

Of the various kinds of merchandise carried by ships to-day, we 
have been able to list 4,761 items, and this number is approximately 
correct. It is interesting to note that this great variety of material 
is carried in only forty different kinds of containers ; many of these 
containers differ only slightly. While the number of packages will 
probably increase, the number of different containers will undoubt- 
edly decrease because of improvements in packing. 

Below is tabulated alphabetically the different kinds of con- 
tainers, and the number of different kinds of articles usually packed 
in such a container.^ 



Bags 371 

Bales 445 

Barrels 438 

Bars 8 

Baskets 170 

Boxes 395 

Bulk 50 

Bunch 8 

Bundles 160 



Butts 
Cakes 
Cans 
Carboys 



4 
29 

6 
10 



Cases 1 749 



Casks 115 

Chests 8 

Coils 8 

Crates 160 

Cylinders 19 

Demijohns 3 

Drums 80 

Firkins 2 

Hampers 6 

Hogsheads 38 

Kegs 166 

Packages 91 

Pails 4 

Pieces 31 



Pipes . . . . 
Puncheons 
Reels .... 
Rolls .... 
Sacks . . . . 
Scroom . . 
Slabs .... 
Spools . . . 
Straps . . . 
Tierces . . 
Tubs .... 
Trunks . . 



a 

2 

22 

48 
60 

3 

4 
4 
4 
38 
8 
2 



Total 4,761 



* Stoivage of Ship Cargoes, by Thomas R. Taylor. Misc. Series No. 92, 
Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. Government Printing Office, 
1920. 



til , 



* I 



1 i 



i ! 



CHAPTER IX 
TYPES OF CRANES AND DERRICKS* 

Transfer by Crane 

The question of transfer by crane deserves the most careful 
consideration. In the first place, most of the great foreign ports are 
equipped with cranes for transfer instead of the usual deck equip- 




FiG. 6i. — A TIMBER STIFF-LEG DERRICK. {Courtesy of Edivard F. Terry Manu- 
facturing Co., Neiv York.) 

ment and rigging or cargo masts of the type that have been dis- 
cussed in connection with American ports. In addition, there is the 
very animated controversy between the old school of American port 
engineers and the new school, particularly the members of the So- 
ciety of Terminal Engineers, as to the relative merits of cargo masts, 
ship's tackle, and cranes for the transfer movement. By all means, 
persons connected with the steamship business, whether ashore or 
afloat, must be sufficiently familiar with the various types of cranes 



* By R. S. MacElwee. 



146 



TYPES OF CRANES AND DERRICKS 



147 



to recognize them on sight and know their outstanding features, their 
names, and the services that they are meant to perform. 

In this discussion it must be borne in mind that the usual wharf 
crane, as developed abroad and here, has not a very much greater 
capacity than the cargo winch and mast for the usual transfer of 
package freight. The heavy draft, such as locomotives, automobiles, 
large pieces of machinery, castings, heavy ordnance, and other heavy 




Fig. 62.— guy derrick. {Courtesy Terry.) 

objects are handled by specially constructed heavy-duty cranes. 
Wharf cranes are, therefore, divided into two large groups, light 
duty and heavy duty. The drafts are handled much the same by a 
crane as by any other transfer equipment. After the draft is made 
up the hook of the fall pendent from the crane is attached to the long 
rove and the draft is lifted and lowered just as it would be by a 
burton-and-fall rig. 

Stiff-leg Derrick.~The simplest form of a hoisting machine 
of the crane or derrick type is the stiff-leff derrick, or stiS^eg (Fig. 



i 



148 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



61). This is the form usually found in building construction, but 
can be used to advantage at any temporary wharf or for handling 
bulk material in small quantities from scows. The boom from which 
the block and hook hang to lift the draft is stepped at the base of 
the vertical "stiff-leg." It is raised or lowered by cables from the 
masthead and can be slued about through from 200 to 260 degrees. 





FiC 64. — SPIDER PLATE AND SHACKLES. 



Fig. 63. — MASTHEAD TOP IRONS 
OF A GUY DERRICK. 




£ 




Fig. 65. — GUY SPIDER PLATE. 

The vertical mast or leg is held in place by two bracing timbers from 
the masthead to the ground, or to the end of a sill, ground beam or 
base beam. The three timbers form a right-angle triangle. In fact, 
there are two timber triangles with one side — the vertical leg — 
common to both. The length of the boom is usually one and one- 
half times the length of the stiff-leg, or mast. With the horizontal 
leg securely anchored to the ground at each end it will be seen that 
this frame is capable of great stability against the tendency to 
tip over. 

A-Frame Derrick. — A modification of the stiff-leg is the A- 
frame derrick. The "mast" in this case consists of a three-timber 
tower or pyramid with a hinged boom similar to that of a stiff-leg 
derrick, stepped in a socket set in a sill or horizontal timber connect- 
ing the feet of two of the timbers, thus forming a letter "A," crossed 
at the bottom. This form is used largely for heavy-duty or con- 
fined areas, such as barges, lighters, etc. These simple derricks 
may be operated by hand or rigged with steam, gas, or electric 



TYPES OF CRANES AND DERRICKS 



149 



winches. They are capable of construction from small to very 
large capacities. 

Stiff- leg derricks may be built either of timber or steel. 

The Sheer Leg Derrick is quite similar to the "A" frame. 

Traveling Stiff-leg Derrick. — A stiff-leg or A-frame derrick 
may be placed on a platform and this platform mounted on wheels 
that run on tracks. In this form the stiff-leg derrick becomes a 
"traveling" derrick because it is possible for it to be moved along a 
track from one point to another. 




Fig. 66. — LOCOMOTIVE crane. {Courtesy Broivn Hoisting Machine Co.) 

The terminology of derricks and cranes is very simple, as it is 
built up descriptively as are the formulas in organic chemistry. 

Guy Derrick. — The guy derrick is used much like an A-frame 
on the stiff-leg derrick. In the place of the A-frame, however, the 
vertical leg or mast is kept in an upright position and given resist- 
ance against the tendency to tip over in lifting a load by running 
guy ropes from a guy spider, with shackles, in four or five directions 
from the masthead to anchors at some distance from the mast. 

Locomotive Crane. — The locomotive crane, as its name im- 
plies, is a steam crane mounted on trucks and capable of moving 
along a standard gauge railroad track like a locomotive. It is a 
very useful instrument, particularly in terminals where the traffic 
is not sufficiently heavy to warrant extensive installations of heavy- 
duty cranes. Where the locomotive crane is of high lifting capacity. 



i 



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il 



150 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



and therefore needed only occasionally at various points along an 
extended water front, its mobility is of great value, as it can be 
directed to that part of the water front where heavy transfer work 
may happen to be desired. Until traffic over a wharf becomes of 
sufficient volume to support the overhead of a complete gantry- 
crane equipment, one or two locomotive cranes will take care of the 
situation in conjunction with ship's winches and cargo masts for the 
lighter work. 

As a rule, the boom of the locomotive crane is hinged and can 
be lowered and raised. When the locomotive crane is traveling the 
boom is usually lowered to a horizontal position along tracks. The 
boom may be slued as well as raised and lowered. 

A revolving or full-circle locomotive crane is the usual type. 
The drums and winding apparatus are mounted on a small turn- 
table that is capable of revolving through a full circle. This is 
much more positive and rapid than sluing. 

Locomotive cranes are self-contained units, that is, being steam 
cranes they are independent of other sources of power. The termi- 
nals of the New York State Barge Canal are fitted with self-contained 
locomotive steam A-frame cranes mounted on wide-rimmed wheels. 

Tower Crane. — A tower crane is a crane mounted on a tower. 
The crane itself may be constructed on the principle of a stiff-leg 
derrick, a guy derrick, or any other type, and with a fixed or a 
hinged boom. Electric power is generally used, as it is not an 
advantageous installation to have a steam crane on a tower. 

This crane may be of the full-circle type, in which case the rig 
would be called a revolving tower crane. 

Traveling Revolving Tower Crane. — A traveling revolving 
tower crane is simply a revolving tower crane placed on a tower 
that is capable of being moved along tracks, that is, a tower that 
can be made to travel. 

In this nomenclature it will be noted that, like the nomenclature 
of organic chemistry, it is possible to string the names of the compo- 
nent parts together until the full name of an installation describes 
it completely. For instance, a crane may be described as a hinged- 
boom electrical revolving traveling tower crane. To this may be 
added the capacity or "heavy duty." The hinged-boom traveling 
and revolving electric tower cranes are the type used so largely in 
shipyards (see Fig. 67). 



TYPES OF CRANES AND DERRICKS 



151 



Hammerhead Crane. — The cantilever crane is usually a heavy- 
duty rig and is found in the fitting-out basins of shipbuilding plants. 
It is usually a fixed-tower revolving crane, but smaller types may 
be mounted on traveling towers (Fig. 68). "Cantilever" refers 
to the characteristic of the arm of the crane that extends out over 
the object to be lifted. In this case, instead of being a boom at an 
angle and supported by cables from the top of the boom, the arm 
extends horizontally and is of cantilever construction, that is, it is 



lbw£R Cranes 




Fig. 67. — A TRAVELING REVOLVING TOWER CRANE FOR SHIPYARD WORK. At thc 

port of London many are used for wharf work. {Courtesy of Terry.) 

supported by one end only. The weight or load being carried by 
the crane, including its own weight, is transferred to the chassis 
of the main supporting column or tower. 

If not counterbalanced, such a tower, with a cantilever arm 
projecting from the top, would tip over. The counter weight is made 
up partly by the electrical winding machinery. The counter weights 
and machinery being placed at the opposite side of the tower from 
the lifting arm give the crane the appearance of a hammer, from 
which the name "hammerhead" crane is derived. 

In cantilever cranes, particularly for heavy duty, the horizontal 
movement of the load is performed by a running gear or traveling 
carriage that is suspended from rails underneath the cantilever arm 



il 



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152 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



and is drawn back and forth along the track by cables or operated by 
its own fnotors. Some of the very large cranes have several of these 
carriages traveling horizontally along the cantilever arm and also 
may have small cranes traveling along the top of this boom. The 




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i. 



Fig. 68.— -heavy duty revolving hammerhead tower crane. {Courtesy of 

fVelltnan-Seaver-M organ Co.) 

complete name for one of these heavy-duty cranes would be "revolv- 
ing hammerhead tower crane." However, in order not to confuse the 
cantilever hammerhead with the movable-boom crane, one is called 
simply a hammerhead crane, and the other a tower crane. 

The Gantry. — In the discussion of water-front equipment the 
word "gantry" is used probably more than any other single name 
of a crane. A gantry crane is a crane mounted on a gantry. "To 



TYPES OF CRANES AND DERRICKS 



153 



gant" means to overhang or to span. A gantry, therefore, is any 
framework that spans. For instance, in railroading, the signal 
blocks above the tracks are mounted on a gantry — a framework that 
spans the tracks. 

In a wharf gantry crane, the framework spans the wharf apron 
or the outer part of the wharf toward the water, and usually this 
spanning is in order to leave the space clear the full length of the 
wharf apron for the railroad sidings that are laid upon it. A wharf 
gantry crane has to span from one to three tracks and sometimes, in 
addition, a landing platform of 5 to 10 feet in width. 

Gantry cranes, and particularly wharf gantry cranes, in which 




I I I n 




II- I - I 




Fig. 69. — A GANTRY crane with traveling hoist. {Courtesy of Terry.) 

the interest of this study centers, are of several varieties. There are 
two sets of names, those applying to or modifying the word "gantry" 
and those modifying the word "crane." There are two principal 
types of gantries: (1) portal or full-arch, and (2) semiportal or 
half-arch. Both types are usually "traveling" and run on tracks 
along the wharf front. 

The Full-arch Gantry Crane. — The full-arch gantry revolving 
jib crane shown in Figure 70 (Shepard Electric Crane & Hoist 
Company) may be analyzed as follows: 

The gantry itself is a full-arch, as it has both feet on the ground, 
and it is called also a "portal" because it looks like a gateway. 
Mounted upon this gantry is a revolving crane. The hoisting 
machinery and the revolving and locomotion mechanism are con- 
tained in the cab. This cab is mounted on trucks that revolve on a 



154 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



I. . 



small circular track. The jib of the crane is fixed, that is, it cannot 
be moved up or down. 

The crane is a traveling crane, as may be seen by the drawing, 
that is, the gantry is mounted on wheels and the crane is capable of 
moving itself along the rails on the wharf apron. 

Figure 71 shows a traveling semiportal gantry revolving jib 
crane. The only difference as to type between this crane and the one 




FiC. 70. — A FULL-ARCH GANTRY REVOLVING JIB CRANE. {CourtfSy Shepard 

Electric Crane & Hoist Co.) 

just described is in the shape of the gantry. In this case the gantry 
has one vertical leg and one horizontal leg. The inshore end of the 
horizontal leg with its traveling wheel rests upon a rail that extends 
along the face of the wharf shed. This rail is mounted on brackets 
attached to the vertical columns, as in the case of shop crane rails. 
The full-arch gantry crane is usually on wharves that have no sheds. 
Compared with a locomotive crane, its advantage is that it occupies 
less space on the wharf. By putting the hoisting machinery up on a 
gantry there need be kept open only the two crane rails, leaving 







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TYPES OF CRANES AND DERRICKS 



157 



space for railroad cars and tracks to pass under the crane, or space 
for depositing merchandise. 

When there is a wharf shed, the semiportal gantry has a further 
advantage, because putting the crane rail along the face of the shed 
removes from the working area both inside legs of the crane itself 
and the space occupied by the rail, leaving this space free for cargo 
handling. In practically all modern ports the accepted type of 








Fig. 73. — A HEAVY-DUTY FULL-ARCH GANTRY REVOLVING CRANE WITH A HINGED 

BOOM. {Courtesy Hey I & Patterson.) 

crane is the semiportal gantry revolving jib crane. Light-duty 
cranes are usually constructed with a fixed boom. 

Hinged'boom Traveling Semiportal Gantry Crane, — This crane, 
shown in Figure 72, differs from the preceding only in that the 
boom is movable or adjustable instead of fixed. Four such cranes 
mounted on semiportal gantries were built at the Army Supply Base 
in Boston and constitute one of the most modern types of wharf 
equipment in the United States. 

Figure 73 illustrates a full-portal gantry revolving jib crane with 
a hinged boom. This particular crane is built for heavy duty, 20 
tons capacity, and the jib, being hinged, may be elevated almost to 



1^8 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



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the perpendicular. This is the usual type of heavy-duty open-wharf 
installation. 

All gantry wharf cranes revolve. 

Light-duty cranes of two to three tons capacity are being pre- 
ferred more and more for the usual miscellaneous cargo transfer 
between ship and wharf. The principal reason for this is the lower 
cost of construction for each individual crane and the lower cost of 
power and operation. Each cycle usually requires about forty-five 
seconds. Starting with the boom inshore we have (i) lifting the 
draft, (2) revolving the boom and draft through approximately 90 
degrees to a point above the hatch, (3) lowering the draft into the 




Fig. 74.— shop crane. {Courtesy of Terry.) 

hold, (4) raising the hook, (5) revolving the empty hook back 
again to above the picking-up point, and (6) lowering the hook to 
receive the next draft. In each cycle the crane must start and stop 
twice. If a crane is very heavy there is much more inertia to be 
overcome in starting as compared with a light crane, and also the 
momentum that must be checked by the brake when the point of rest 
has been reached is much greater. For many years the prevailing 
type of crane in most European ports was approximately three tons, 
but the more advanced harbor engineers in the United States, advo- 
cate a one and one-half or two ton crane for the usual wharf transfer 
work. 

Shop Crane.— The shop crane is the familiar crane for inside 
work. Shop cranes, unless otherwise stated, are understood to be 






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160 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



traveling shop cranes. They consist of a bridge extending across 
the bay of a shop or a wharf shed of a warehouse and resting on 
rails mounted on the roof-supporting columns on the sides of the 
bay. These cranes travel along the rails at the space spanning the 
bay. A carriage with the requisite winding mechanism and hook 
travels from one end of the bridge to the other. By moving the 
bridge the length of the shop, and moving the carriage with the 
hook crosswise on the bridge, every square foot of floor space in the 
bay in which the crane works can be covered. 

Heavy-duty Cranes.— It is obvious that if cranes are designed 
for operation at low capacity in favor of rapid movement and 
economy of current consumption, other provisions must be made 
to handle the heavy cargo. 

As has been pointed out in this work and elsewhere, it is found 
to be more advantageous to run flat cars or gondola cars, loaded 
with heavy articles, to an uncovered wharf fitted with car tracks and 
heavy-duty cranes or derricks and discharge the cars on to a lighter. 
The large packages are transferred by the heavy-duty wharf crane 
to a lighter. The lighter is towed alongside the ship and a heavy- 
duty floating derrick puts the heavy packages of merchandise into 
the hold from the water side. This has the advantage of centraliz- 
ing the relatively occasional utilization of the heavy hoisting equip- 
ment at two points, uncovered wharf and floating derrick, making it 
"rentable" or a paying investment. There should be an uncovered 
heavy-duty wharf crane for every ten or twelve to twenty general 
merchandise berths. This system also has the further advantage 
of not congesting the wharves with large and bulky packages 
and leaving ship's tackle or wharf cranes entirely for the lighter 
packages. 

The floating derricks or floating cranes are simply the usual types 
of cranes mounted on heavy floats. The favorite form in New York 
is a stiff-leg or A-frame derrick mounted on a float. 

Bridge Crane.— The bridge crane, which has reached its best 
development in the ore and coal stock piles of the Great Lakes, is 
simply a glorified traveling gantry crane with a cantilever extension. 
The pendent, or grab bucket, is on a traveling carriage on rails 
underneath the bridge, rather than a jib or boom or other revolving 
crane structure resting on the gantry. The usual wharf gantry 
crane spans from 10 to 40 feet, while the bridge crane may span 



TYPES OF CRANES AND DERRICKS 



161 



several hundred feet. The water end is hinged and is drawn up, in 
order not to foul the spars or rigging of a vessel entering her berth, 
and lowered over the hatch when the ship is made fast. The car- 
riage travels along the underside of the bridge from above the hatch 
to the point of deposit. 

The particular advantage of a bridge crane is its ability to 






Mm. 




UftHXftny 
THE SMW Eliaiac CMNE ca * 

MOCUSOH, MCM. 



Fig. 76. — A STRAIGHT-LINE WHARF CRANE. {Courtesy Shaiv Electric Crane Co., 

Manning, Maxwell & Moor, Inc.) 

handle heavy articles from an open wharf directly into a vessel. 
For instance, an open wharf may be used for storing large quan- 
tities of barrels of oil, crates of automobiles, or for ordnance. The 
new Army Supply Base at Boston has an open wharf, but the bridge 
crane has not been installed. The East Harbor at Berlin, on the 
River Spree, has such a bridge crane for handling building ma- 
terials, particularly bricks, which are loaded at the brickyard into 
the containers that are placed upon the barge. The movable body 



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162 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



is transferred by the bridge crane and placed upon the chassis of a 
motor truck. At Brussels, in Belgium, the harbor equipment includes 
a very excellent bridge crane for handling plate glass from the 
railroad cars to water craft. 

A characteristic of the bridge crane is its greater span in heavy- 
duty uncovered wharf work. The fact that the hoisting apparatus 
with the hook runs in a straight line from above the hatch instead 
of revolving at the end of a boom is conducive to rapid work with 
little lost motion. 

Roof cranes, as found at Liverpool and elsewhere, are simply the 
usual electric revolving jib crane mounted on the roof of a ware- 
house or wharf shed instead of on a gantry; or, to put it another 
way, the roof is the gantry. 

Straight-line Crane. — One of the latest developments in crane 
construction, an example of which is to be found on Pier 6 of the 
East River — one of the New York terminals of the New York State 
Barge Canal — is the straight-line crane. This crane is quite dif- 
ferent from the other forms that have been mentioned but is of the 
bridge-crane family. The supporting carriage travels along the 
roof, but the boom, instead of being hinged at one end, is hinged 
near the middle and supported by a stirrup dropped from the car- 
riage to a level that permits one end of the boom to extend into the 
wharf shed. The boom may be drawn up to an almost vertical 
position, and when lowered one end extends over the hatch of the 
vessel and the other end extends into the shed. The crane does not 
revolve but the hook and hoisting carriage travel back and forth in a 
straight line as in the case of a bridge crane. This gives the rig the 
name of the straight-line wharf crane. The advantages claimed for 
this type are several: less dead-weight movement, as only the hoist- 
ing drum and carriage, not the entire crane, moves ; travel in straight 
line instead of through an arc of a circle, thus permitting more 
cranes to work on a single vessel without interference with one 
another; a larger area for deposit or picking up of drafts, thus 
relieving congestion at one of the principal points cf congestion; 
transfer from hold directly to within the transit shed, thus permit- 
ting the men to work under cover in bad weather. This type requires 
an especially high transit shed to enable the boom to clear the ship's 
rail and still extend into the shed. 




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WHARF MANAGEMENT 



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Relative Advantages of Ship's Tackle and Shore Cranes 

Ship's Tackle versus Crane Equipment. — Cranes arc ex- 
pensive to install, and unless the equipment is used almost continu- 
ously, that is, unless a large volume of freight is handled per annum, 
the capital investment causes a disadvantageous overhead as com- 
pared with the tackle that the ship must always have with it, whether 
the cranes are installed at some ports or not. 

Cranes occupy a considerable amount of wharf space, and this 
space is not available on the narrow piers that have become cus- 
tomary in American ports. 

The installation of cranes increases the cost of pier construction, 
as both the pier structure itself and the pier shed must be of suf- 
ficient strength to carry the additional load of the crane. 

On the narrow American piers that do not have rail connections, 
one of the chief advantages of the crane is lost — that of loading 
discharged merchandise on to flat cars and gondola cars after the 
vessel has left its berth. 

The cranes require a great deal of space because of swinging the 
boom through a large arc. This usually makes it impossible to work 
more than one fall to the hatch. The cargo-mast and burton-and- 
fall rig moves the freight in a direct line, and the amount of time 
saved in the actual passage of the draft between the wharf and the 
holds is in favor of the ship's tackle and cargo mast rig as against 
the crane. However, this advantage is slight and depends largely 
upon the skill of the operators, a crane being more rapid in skillful 
hands. It takes more energy or power to revolve the entire crane 
boom and house than to raise the draft and burton it between the 
wharf and hold. 

Many other arguments that are advanced in favor of the Ameri- 
can system mean very little. For instance, it is stated that the 
European steamship companies, when they built the piers in Hobo- 
ken, did not copy their own home ports but copied the American port 
because of the superiority of the New York system. The answer to 
this, on the other hand, is that the wharves and quays built for these 
same companies in their home ports in expanding their service were 
built according to plans of their home ports, not according to the 
American ports. If the American system is superior, why was it not 
copied in recent port improvements abroad? This argument is 



u 



TYPES OF CRANES AND DERRICKS 



165 



i 



% 



"fifty-fifty," the answer being, of course, that the prevailing system 
at either port is followed. 

Cranes versus Ship's Tackle.— This caption is misleading, be- 
cause, while there may be competition or relative merit between the 
crane system and the ship's tackle system, the functions of the two 
systems are somewhat different. It will promote a more beneficial 
argument to consider the two systems as antagonistic. 

The advantages of the crane transfer are enumerated as follows : 
The crane reduces the amount of hard labor, that is, the drum-end 
man and winch runner is displaced by a man sitting in a protected 
cab on the crane, who controls the various movements of lifting, 
lowering, and sluing by means of levers. Also, the crane operator 
suffers less fatigue than is given by the jar, vibration, and the noise 
of the winches. 

Considerably fewer men are needed in the transfer movement. 
When cranes alone are used the only member of the crew on the deck 
of the ship is the gang captain or signal man. One man in the cab 
of the crane replaces one or two winch runners (one if right-hand 
and left-hand winches are operated by one man) and one or two 
drum-end men. 

The rigging of the ship's tackle is dispensed with. The crane is 
always rigged ; it only has to move along the rails on which it travels 
to the point at which it is to work. This is all controlled by a lever 
in the cab. 

The point of deposit on the wharf is larger with the crane than 
with the burton and fall. The point of deposit for the burton and fall 
is only about 8 by 10 feet, while that of a crane may be 8 or 10 feet 
wide and 20 to 30 feet long. Congestion is relieved at the point of 
deposit, because it is possible to put down a second draft before the 
first draft is completely cleared away and because the longshoremen 
can work continuously along the area without having a draft "hang" 
or remain suspended above them while the preceding draft is being 
removed. 

The crane is usually in a better mechanical condition and more 
workable than the ship's winch, due to the exposed position of the 
ship's winches, the working of a vessel in a heavy sea, carelessness 
of casual operators, and other circumstances. The steam fittings of 
the winch are often loose, steam is lost, or the winch itself becomes 
out of alignment. Aside from the lack of efficiency due to steam 












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166 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



condensation and leakage, the noise that the ship's winches make 
indicates the amount of energy that is being expended in making 
that noise. The noiseless operation of a well designed and con- 
structed electric crane indicates by its silence the efficiency of the 
application of power to the work. 

Electric power has an additional advantage over steam in that 
the current is consumed only when the crane is actually in operation, 
while the winches on a ship must be kept under steam continuously 
during their use, whether they iare in actual operation or not. 

When the ship leaves its berth it takes its equipment with it, 
leaving the wharf without equipment. With a crane, barges, lighters, 
and other harbor, river, and inland navigation craft may be served ; 
also railroad flat and gondola cars may be loaded and unloaded by 
the use of the crane. 

The amount of cable or rope consumed is less in the case of the 
crane. A short steel cable is used, compared with the many feet of 
rope in the various falls, burtons, etc., in the mast-and-winch system. 

Cranes will undergo many changes in type in the next few years. 
At present it is safe to say that the relative advantage depends upon 
circumstances — roughly, the crane for a quay wharf and the mast 
for a pier wharf. 

Use of Specialized Equipment^ 

The greater part of the overseas freight of the world is mis- 
cellaneous package freight, the equipment for handling which differs 
but little from that used years ago. But there are other classes of 
freight whose character is such as to make it readily adaptable to 
transfer by specialized equipment of various sorts. These classes 
are (a) standardized-package freight, (b) free-flowing bulk freight. 

By standardized-package freight is meant that which to a pre- 
dominant degree is shipped in a standardized package in cargo lots 
or very large shipments. The group includes bananas, sugar, sacked 
grain, flour, case oil, cotton, coffee, and a great number of other 

products. 

A large part of this standardized-package freight is still handled 
by methods already described, but specialization of equipment has 
followed the standardization of package in many instances where 
the volume of freight has been great. In some cases the specializa- 
tion has been only an improvement and a standardization of the old 

* From Thomas R. Taylor, StoiLage of Ship Cargoes. 



\ 



TYPES OF CRANES AND DERRICKS 



167 



methods. By making careful study of a particular situation, steve- 
dores have been able to work out the most advantageous whips, 
power, size of gang, etc. In other cases a new system of transfer 
has been devised, this applying specially to the conveyors used for 
cotton, coffee, and other products at widely separated piers. Since 
the packages are of uniform size, the value of a conveyor of limited 
size and power is readily demonstrated. Some of these conveyors 
extend from the deck to the transit shed ; others have legs that can 
be placed into the hold. The following advantages are claimed ^ 
for these conveyors and are substantiated in individual cases at least. 

1. Speed of loading is increased from 25 to 75 per cent. The 
speed is increased because there are no points of congestion, 
as at the place of the deposit of the fall ; because the 
machine is tireless; and because the conveyor belt can be 
made to average a greater speed than a man. 

2. Cost of loading is reduced by as much as 80 per cent in some 
instances. This cost reduction is largely due to the fewer 
number of longshoremen required. If the conveyor extends 
from the hold and includes a tiering section, the number 
of men employed at a hatch may be cut to one-fifth of the 
number used under old-style methods. The speed of dis- 
charge is increased at the same time, making a large total 
in expense per ton. On March 6, 1919, 2,103 barrels of 
asphalt were unloaded by a conveyor system at Beaumont, 
Texas, in 8^ hours at a total cost of $25.16. 

3. Damage to cargo is eliminated to a large degree. This ap- 
plies to sugar, coffee, flour, etc., in bags, that are torn by the 
slings, skids, or banging against obstructions on wharf or 
ship. With certain commodities there is little or no elimi- 
nation of damage. The greatest damage to sugar, for ex- 
ample, is in the tearing of the bags by the longshoremen's 
hooks, and the conveyor will not remedy this. With the 
commodities, such as bananas, that are bruised in slings 
and therefore must be handled in single bunches by the 
expensive human chain, the labor saving is very great. 

It would seem that these advantages would have led to wider 
installation of such machinery even for loading miscellaneous freight. 
Some difficulties have prevented this. The conveyors in the past 
have not been readily adaptable to varying sizes and weights of 
packages, and to varying level of the vessel. For some time con- 
veyors could not be economically designed to lift weights at an 

' "The Coming Mechanical Devices That Will Make Ship-loading 
Economical." The American, Vol. V (1919), 7-15. 



i 



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168 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



angle greater than 45 degrees and therefore could not be placed in 
the hold. And probably the greater difficulty to be met has been 
the conservatism of the shipping trade, which looks askance at 
methods that have been accepted by manufacturing plants many 
years ago. All these difficulties are being overcome rapidly. Modern 
conveyors are capable of carrying the average overseas package, 
which is less than 500 pounds in weight, and of raising these pack- 
ages at almost any angle. They have proved their practicability at 
various places and their manufacturers have recently gained more 
publicity through the Material Handling Machinery Manufac- 
turers' Association, so that it is to be expected that this method of 
handling freight will be more widely used at ocean terminals in the 
near future. 

Continuous-motion or Belt-conveyor Transfer Equipment. 
— The horizontal movement by belt conveyor, as often used in 
certain side-port loading and discharging, is simple and needs little 
discussion here. But when continuous-motion systems have been 
attempted for deep holds of ocean-going vessels with a long "rise" 
or vertical movement out of the hold, and with constant changes in 
the length of the lift due to tides, and when there is a long carry to 
the wharf due to the size of the ship, difficulties have been encoun- 
tered. Obviously, any kind of conveyor system will be limited in 
practice to certain grades of package freight, particularly those of 
fairly small dimensions and weight, excluding large and irregularly 
shaped crates or very heavy objects. 

The Banana Unloader, — The banana unloader was one of the 
first vertical conveyor systems devised in transfer movement for 
ocean-going vessels. A description of this useful piece of spe- 
cialized equipment is quoted from Ports and Terminal Facilities,* 

The method of handling in slings did not work well for bananas, 
as the fruit was bruised. As the banana trade increased in impor- 
tance throughout the world the terminals of banana steamers at 
Hamburg, New Orleans, and elsewhere were fitted with a specially 
devised banana unloader. The most successful type and the one 
with the greatest capacity has been installed by the Port of New 
Orleans, the Port of Galveston, and elsewhere. The equipment is 
described in a booklet issued by Ford, Bacon and Davis, the engi- 

*R. S. MacElwee, Ports and Terminal Facilities. McGraw-Hill Book 
Co., New York, 191 8. 



TYPES OF CRANES AND DERRICKS 



169 



neers designing the municipal wharves, warehouses and elevators 
at New Orleans, La. 

Banana importations at New Orleans exceed those at any other 
port, amounting for the year ending June 30, 1914, to 16,583,000 
bunches, equivalent to an average of 320,000 bunches per week. 

The handling of this business by mechanical devices has been 
developed until practically all of the bananas are now unloaded 
by machines. 

Catw/cs 
Covered^ 




Apron Conveyor* 



Fig. 79. — BANANA UNLOADER. 

The design of this machine is complicated by the necessity of 
providing for a wide range of water level and ships of various 
dimensions. The machine consists of a steel A-frame structure 
traveling lengthwise of the wharf on two rails about 21 foot centers, 
and carrying a structural steel main boom 50 feet in length, stepped 
about 20 feet above the dock level. 

On this boom, at a distance of about 30 feet from the heel, is 
stepped an auxiliary boom 20 or more feet in length, from the end of 
which is swung the vertical leg of the conveyor. These two booms 
afford almost any desired combination of vertical and horizontal 



h 



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It 



'f ! 



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170 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

adjustment, while at the same time the main boom is sufficiently 
short to clear the stays and wireless rigging of the ships. 

These booms and the framework carry the con/eyor proper, con- 
sisting of two endless chains spaced about five feet apart and run- 
ning over pairs of sprockets at the foot and head of the conveyor 
frame, at the pivot points of the auxiliary and main booms and at 
additional points at the discharge end of the unloader. 

The distance between chains is maintained by pipe spreaders and 
through bolts spaced about three feet centers, attached to which is a 
four-foot canvas belt with sufficient slack between each pair of 
spreaders to hold a bunch of bananas when the chain is moving 

vertically. 

Upon reaching the point of discharge the bunch is forced out of 
the pocket by a roller behind the belt and drops upon a short hori- 
zontal conveyor from which the bunches are picked up by hand, 
inspected, sorted and loaded into cars, or disposed of locally. 

The entire machine is driven through gearing and clutches by 
one 15-H.P. motor. The capacity of each machine is upward of 
2,600 bunches per hour. 

Three groups of these unloaders, consisting of 10 units, arc 
owned by the Dock Board, the total investment being about $90,000. 
The most recent installation is at the Pauline Street wharf and 
consists of four machines costing approximately $37,500. The 
section of the wharf on which they operate is of pile and timber 
construction with steel shed, about 360 feet by 260 feet. As the area 
is covered rain does not interrupt the discharging of cargo. The 
wharf is served by eight transverse spur tracks accommodating five 
cars each, and as one ship may carry 40,000 to 45,000 bunches or 
about 120 carloads, the entire track capacity may be filled and 
moved three times in less than a day's time. The cost to the Dock 
Board of this wharf with its shed and tracks was about $1.40 per 
square foot. In the rear of the wharf the Public Railroad has yard 
capacity for 200 additional cars. 

The Board of Commissioners makes a charge for the use of the 
banana conveyors of one-fourth cent per bunch, which considerably 
exceeds the cost of operation, maintenance, and interest charges. 

Vertical Belt Conveyors, — The principle involved in the banana 
conveyor, that of the slack belt between rigid cross pieces and the 
three-ply leg to make possible accommodation to the variable depth 
of ships and water level, is suggestive for other unloaders. It is 
perfectly feasible to unload coffee or sugar bags in the same manner. 
In fact, any regular bag-shaped or bunch-shaped articles which will 



TYPES OF CRANES AND DERRICKS 



171 



not injure the belting could be handled by this apron, or slack-belt 
system. The increase in the speed of unloading by the mere feeding 




Fia 80. — A VERTICAL BELT CONVEYOR. 



of single bags to an elevating conveyor is very marked. The great 
trouble heretofore has been that conveyors would work horizontally 
and at a low grade, usually not exceeding 45 degrees, but could not 
possibly perform a vertical lift and a horizontal transfer. 



Mirvii' II, 






f; 



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172 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



The Elevator Conveyor, — When the above paragraph concerning 
vertical belt conveyors was written the writer had not yet seen the 
type of conveyor for general cargo shown in Figure So.** This con- 
veyor is an application of the slack-belt principle of the banana 
unloader. Where a large portion of the cargo is made up of compact 
boxes, bags, or crates, not exceeding 300 to 500 pounds, it is of 
considerable advantage. A similar system, using iron baskets instead 
of a slack belt, is in general use on the London wharves for dis- 
charging frozen mutton. 

In connection with the conveyor it should be noted that the 




Fig. 81.— loading ship by means of a vertical belt conveyor and gravity 

roller conveyors to the wings. 

distribution of the cargo from under the hatch to the corners of the 
held where it is stowed, or the reverse, is made by light gravity 
roller conveyors. This expedites the stowage of the cargo and makes 
unnecessary the time-consuming trip back and forth between the 
sling in the hatch opening and the corners of the hold that are being 
stowed. With these rollers it is possible to chute the packages to 
two, three, or four different corners in the hold and keep several 
stowage crews busy in that manner. 



' By courtesy of Rownson, Drew & Clydesdale, Inc., New York, London, 
and Glasgow. 



TYPES OF CRANES AND DERRICKS 



173 



It must not be overlooked in all devices for rapidly loading 
vessels that the speed of transfer is limited by the ability of the 
hatch gang properly to stow the merchandise. And in discharging 
it is limited by the ability of the hatch gang to break out the cargo 
and swing it to the hatch opening and make it into a sling or feed it 
into the conveyor. Again, at the point of deposit on the wharf, in 
discharging, the same question of taking the draft away quickly is 
of the greatest importance in the rapid transfer movement. 

In all events, the stowage, handling, and transfer must be so 
synchronized that the draft is never allowed to hang. In the case 
of the conveyor the parallel of allowing the draft to hang is having 
to stop the conveyor because it is delivering the merchandise too 

rapidly. 

All conveyor types of transfer have the advantages of direct-line 
motion over the arc of the revolving crane boom, in addition to the 
advantage of continuous motion, rather than the intermittent motion 
of the hook and sling system. 

With the large hatch opening of the newer type of cargo vessels, 
two falls can be worked at one time. In fact, under certain condi- 
tions, four falls may be operated, two from offshore, and two from 
water side. 



Free-flowing Bulk Freight. — Bulk freight consists of articles 
that are shipped without packaging and includes brick, ore, coal, 
grain, lumber, oil, etc. Of these commodities some, such as brick 
and lumber, are non-flowing and cannot be handled essentially dif- 
ferently from miscellaneous package freight; others, such as oil, 
grain, coal and ore, are free-flowing and are adapted to trans- 
fer by specialized equipment. Grain is poured into vessels from 
hoppers fed by conveyors. Iron ore is also poured in the holds of 
its carriers and is unloaded by grab buckets, Huellet unloaders, or 
other specialized means. Coal cars are lifted bodily and the con- 
tents dumped into the waiting vessel. Oil is pumped in and out of 
the especially designed tankers. Mechanical conveyors carry phos- 
phate rock in Florida from the storage pile to the hatch coamings. 

Two general principles are applied in these devices. One is that 
it is cheaper to lift mechanically free-flowing goods to a point from 
which they can flow into the carrier than it is to transfer them hori- 
zontally. The other principle, closely associated with the first, is 
that mechanical hoisting is economical with goods in large volume 



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WHARF MANAGEMENT 









and of a nature not destructible by rough handling. These two 
principles are so well tried by practice that they are generally 
accepted. Their application, however, differs with the commodity 
and with other conditions, and no attempt will be made here to 
describe the different appliances that are used. Any one interested 
in the methods may find excellent descriptions of ore-carrying on 
the Great Lakes, of the coal-car tippers at New York or other 
points, of grain elevators, such as those at Girard Point, Philadel- 
phia, and of the filling and emptying of the tankers at any oil 
exporting or importing port. 

It must be said that the application is being extended to cover 
the transfer of some commodities that are put up in packages. Thus 
the Arbuckle Coffee Company at New York uses a chute delivery to 
ship for its coffee sacks. There seems to be no adequate reason why 
the gravity and even the grab-bucket systems should not be used 
for unbreakable commodities that are handled in large volume.® 

Bunkering or Coaling Ships. — One of the various important 
and disagreeable duties that a ship must perform in port and also at 
many ports of call is that of taking aboard fuel. A great advantage 
of oil fuel is the speed with which the fuel tanks of the ship may be 
filled by fuel lighters that come alongside and simply pump the fuel 
from the lighter into the tank of the ship. Unfortunately, the 
amount of fuel oil available at ports is so limited that only a com- 
paratively small proportion of ships, at the present time, are able to 
use this convenient fuel. 

Bunkering, or taking aboard fuel coal, must be distinguished 
sharply from loading cargo coal into a vessel that is to carry the 
coal as freight. At the great coal ports, such as Newport News, 
Baltimore, Cardiff, Newcastle, and elsewhere, from which coal is 
shipped as a commodity, elaborate specialized machinery has been 
installed for loading. Coal piers load directly into colliers for 
overseas shipments or into barges for distribution along the water 
front. In recent years the coaling facilities of the world have been 
so overtaxed that ships desiring bunker coal alone have not been 
permitted to go to these coal piers for bunkering. 

Also a cargo or passenger vessel will find it uneconomical to 
bunker at the coal piers. Bunkering may be carried on while the 
vessel is at her berth discharging or receiving cargo, without losing 

• T. R. Taylor, Stoiuage of Ship Cargoes. 



ii 






) 



TYPES OF CRANES AND DERRICKS 



175 



any of the time of the vessel. The ship is usually "breasted off** 
from a wharf a sufficient distance to permit coal lighters to come 
between the vessel and the wharf. There are two distinct methods 
of getting the coal from the lighter into the bunker. The first is by 
use of the familiar grab bucket carried on a derrick barge of some 
sort. Except where very large ships are to be bunkered, the so-called 
gooseneck boom crane, operating a grab bucket that lifts the coal 
from the barges and drops it into the hoppers that lead to the ship's 
bunkers, is the more flexible and less expensive method, and also one 
that saves the time required in rigging other apparatus. At the 
various anchorages around Hampton Roads this floating equipment 
is to be seen. 

At New York, where very large lighters bunker liners that 
consume enormous quantities of coal on each trip, there have been 
developed two systems of belt-conveyors; one by the Michener 
Stowage Company and the other by the De Mayo Company. Both 
of these systems are built on the principle of the chain-bucket 
elevator. They are rigged to the side of the vessel with spouts 
leading to the bunker ports. The rigging of this equipment takes 
considerable time, but the rapidity of movement after the rig is once 
in position shows a great gain in the time and effort necessary to 
bunker a large ship. 

Comparison of Coaling Methods 



Tons of coal bunkered. . . 
Stevedores and operators. 
Avg. tons p.h. per ship.. 

Hours coaling 

Avg. time per 1000 tons. 
Avg. tons per laborer p.h. 
Man hours, labor 




8000 

96 
800 

10 
\% hra. 

8.33 
960 



Mr. H. Michener, Jr., president of the Michener Stowage Com- 
pany, gives the above table of figures, showing a comparison of 
coaling vessels at various ports. Although this information is ex 
parte, the figures are, nevertheless, interesting. 

REFERENCES 

Annin, Robert W. Ocean Shipping. The New Century Co., New 

York, 1920. 
The General Electric Review, April, 1921. 
The G. E. Co. Technical Letter, No. 350, October, 1920. 



i ■ 




CHAPTER X 

STOWAGE AND THE STOWAGE PLAN* 

Difficulty of Stowing 

The stowage of cargo may be said to begin after the goods have 
been transferred from the pier to the hold, although the term 
"stowage," properly applied, covers the operations of transfer, as 
well as the actual packing of the goods in the hold. To a man who 
has never watched the loading of a vessel, stowing seems a simple 
matter, but it really is most complicated and difficult. The problems 
encountered in trying to fix the maximum amount of cargo in the 
least space, at the least expenditure of time and money, and at a 
maximum amount of safety to the goods and to the vessel, are not 
easily solved. This is particularly true with a mixed cargo that is 
to be discharged at two or more ports. It takes a very capable man 
to plan the stowage of such a vessel. 



Planning the Stowage 

Planning by the Booking Agent.— Planning the stowage be- 
gins in the office of the steamship company. The billing clerk, in 
booking the cargo, must take into consideration the relation of dif- 
ferent shipments to each other. He must secure a cargo that is well 
balanced by weight and volume, by size or measurement, and by 
character. He should not take all dead-weight freight that will 
bring the vessel to its marks before it is filled, nor should he fail to 
provide small packages to use as broken stowage, nor should he 
accept freight that is of a character dangerous to the vessel, crew, or 
cargo. A new man may make many mistakes that prove very 
embarrassing and troublesome. 

Planning by the Stevedore. — The freight that is accepted is 
shown on the "cargo list," which is closed as soon as enough cargo 



* By Thomas R. Taylor. 



STOWAGE AND THE STOWAGE PLAN 



177 



' 



has been secured. A copy of the list is then sent to the pier 
superintendent or stevedore in order that he may know what freight 
to expect and begin the preparation of a stowage plan. The problem 
of the billing clerk is easy as compared with his, for he has the 
enormous task of properly arranging the cargo in the vessel. He 
must consider (i) the speed and cost of loading and unloading, (2) 
the proper protection of the vessel, (3) the protection of the cargo, 
and (4) the stowage of the maximum amount of cargo. These 
principles are relatively easy of statement but their expansion in this 
and other chapters will show that they offer many problems which 
are made more difficult by the fact that they are interrelated. Long 
experience in the business is the only method of training a practical 
stevedore, for it is experience only that will teach him the relative 
merits of different possibilities. 

With these principles in mind, the stevedore sits down before the 
cargo list and mentally places the freight in the vessel. He knows 
the peculiarities of that particular ship and is familiar with the 
commodities shown on the list. He realizes that he must put about 
one-third of the dead weight in the between decks in order to pre- 
vent excessive rolling of the vessel ; that he must place more weight 
aft than forward because this ship sails better if it has a "drag" ; that 
he cannot load this heavy machinery in No. 3 hold because the 
beams at that hatch are weak; that clothing cannot be placed on 
the "skin" because it may be damaged by the water from the leaky 
tank top; and that the barrels must go in No. 4 hold for the reason 
that they are already stored at that end of the pier. His mind is 
full of such limitations on his work, and it is only after he has 
considered all possibilities that he is ready to draw up a preliminary 
stowage plan. He may then gather his foremen together to tell 
them what he plans to do, and they may offer suggestions that will 
lead to alteration. But even after all this has been done, there is 
little hope that the stowing will proceed as planned, for delay in 
receipt of some shipments may upset the whole scheme. The 
machinery that was to go on the skin of No. 5 hold may not be 
delivered so early as the canned goods that were to be placed on top 
of the machinery. Such occurrences are common, so the preliminary 
stowage plan is subject to constant change. 

Upon the completion of the preliminary plan and the arrival of 



V6 



178 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 




the vessel, stowing may commence. The hiring of the men and the 
layout of the transfer equipment have already been described. We 
are now primarily interested in the way the freight is placed after it 
is put in the hold and in the completion of the stowage plan. 



Methods of Stowing 

Preparation of the Hold. — The methods used in stowing the 
cargo in the hold varies with the type of commodity and with the 
article, so that no description will hold good for all kinds of freight. 
The first step in almost any case is the proper preparation of the 
hold to receive the cargo. In some cases preparation may consist of 
nothing more than the removal of debris left from the previous 
voyage, but in other cases, it must be very elaborate. Before stowing 
bulk grain it is necessary to construct shifting boards, or temporary 
bulkheads, to confine the grain to a small compartment in order to 
prevent excessive shifting, and it is also necessary to build "feeders" 
in the 'tween-deck or in the hatchway. These feeders are simply 
large hoppers into which grain is placed and from which it can feed 
into the lower hold as the cargo there settles during the voyage. If 
the cargo to be carried is especially susceptible to water damage the 
beams and stanchions must be muffled with cloth or matting to pre- 
vent the drops of vapor condensed on them from falling on the 
cargo. In some instances the hold must be thoroughly scoured and 
painted to remove odors, dirt, and vermin. 

Stov/age of Bulk Freight. — Bulk cargo is ordinarily fed into 
the hold in an almost continuous stream. As long as it continues 
to fall into the hold, the dust and the danger of flying pieces prevent 
men from working below, but as soon as the hatch is choked or 
blocked the longshoremen can crawl down and begin the task of 
distributing the load. If the cargo consists of grain the longshore- 
men will descend at the first opportunity with shovels and throw the 
grain towards the wings as fast as it is delivered to the hatchway. 
Even with the hatch blocked the dust is so thick that masks must 
be worn. 

If the bulk cargo is light relative to volume the stowage must be 
carefully done to economize space. Grain and similar commodities 
should be tramped down firmly and the interbeam space must be 



STOWAGE AND THE STOWAGE PLAN 



179 



I 



» ■ 

I 



filled by strenuous work with the shovels. Heavier bulk cargo 
requires less trimming, for stability considerations require that it 
be heaped toward the hatch in about the same position in which it 
naturally falls. 

Stowage of Package Freight. — Package freight of all kinds 
is stowed differently. This ordinarily arrives in the hold in slings. 
There must be men in the hold to release the draft from the sling, 
attach an empty sling to the fall, and move the draft to its place of 
stowage. If the vessel is large and the hatch small, it may be 
necessary to move the freight fifty feet or more and then to elevate 
it and stow it carefully in the proper place. These operations require 
the labor of from 30 to 75 per cent of the total force working on the 
vessel, and the hold cost probably averages about 40 per cent of the 
total cost of stevedoring. On account of the short distances and the 
care that must be exercised in placing the goods, machinery is used 
but very little. The draft, while still attached to the fall, is swung 
and dropped as near as possible to its place of stowage. From this 
point it is rolled, pushed, carried, tossed or dragged to the wings or 
bulkhead. The longshore hook, with which every longshoreman is 
armed, is surprisingly useful in this work. If the packages are small 
a sliding board is fitted up, upon which the goods may be slid for a 
distance of several yards. 

Mechanical Aids, — Planks are laid down in many cases, espe- 
cially when handling barrels, to assist the movement. Rollers are 
placed under a very heavy package, and if the longshoremen cannot 
handle it even then, the deck winch may be called into play by run- 
ning a rope from it to a pulley in the wing and thence to the weight 
to be moved. If the packages are sacks of refined sugar or some other 
easily handled commodity, it is frequently the practice to build up 
a "stool" or platform at the hatchway, to which the longshoremen 
may come to receive the packages on their backs. Thus, mechanical 
aids of various kinds are used, but stowing is primarily a matter of 
hand labor. It is not only laborious but it is also skilled hand 
labor, for the operation does not consist solely of moving packages 
from one point to another. The skill is shown in placing the pack- 
ages quickly in such a manner that they will occupy the least possible 
space and will receive minimum damage during the voyage. The 
longshoreman who can stand at the hatchway and throw a sack 
of sugar from his shoulders or hip for a distance of six feet in any 






sanaog 



I* 



!« 



I ! 



180 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



direction and make that sack fall exactly in the proper place with 
the exact amount of momentum necessary is a skilled laborer. Any 
one who has watched a capable barrel man at work can appreciate 
his skill. He rolls the barrel easily along the cant line of the tier of 
barrels below, brings it up sharply at the proper point, spins it rapidly 
with his hook to bring the bung to such a position that it will be 
uppermost when the barrel is placed, turns it easily and quickly so 
that its bilge drops exactly into the cant line of the barrels under- 
neath and the chimes engage exactly with the chimes of the barrel in 
the same "longer," and finally places a piece or two of dunnage at 
just the proper points. There is no hesitation, no wasted energy, no 
smashing of barrels against each other. Every movement is smooth 
and graceful, and no movement is wasted. The only part of the 
operation that sometimes delays him is the placing of the dunnage, 
for if the stability of the barrels does not satisfy him he may move 
several of them at great effort in order that they may fit snugly and 
that the amount of dunnage used be reduced to a minimum. He 
does his work with such apparent ease that it is hard to realize that 
he is stowing several times the number of barrels stowed by the 
clumsy, perspiring beginner in the same hold. 

Dunnage. — In stowing almost any kind of cargo, dunnage and 
goods for broken stowage are important considerations. "Dunnage" 
consists of material used to protect the goods against any possible 
source of damage. Ordinarily the term is applied only to cheap cord- 
wood used to hold the freight away from the sides, the "skin," or 
other parts of the ship, and to separate and make stable individual 
packages ; but in the broader sense dunnage includes matting, shingle, 
and other materials used for these purposes. ^'Broken stowage" is the 
space lost between units of cargo. It varies with the kind of freight 
from about 2 per cent to about 30 per cent of the total cargo space, 
the average perhaps being 10 to 12 per cent. Most of the spaces 
so left between units must be filled either with dunnage or with 
small packages in order that the cargo may carry safely. If small 
packages are used more freight is earned and the cost of dunnage is 
lowered, so that the booking clerk should endeavor to secure goods 
that may be used for this purpose. No matter whether dunnage or 
goods for broken stowage are used, they should be delivered to the 
hold at the proper time, even though this may mean an interruption 
in the transfer operations. If the longshoremen do not have them 



STOWAGE AND THE STOWAGE PLAN 181 

when needed, time is lost later, and the cargo will probably be in 
danger of chafe and shifting. 

Size of Hold Gangs.— The number and distribution of men in 
the hold gang will vary with many factors, but principally with the 
type of commodity handled and with the amount of working space. 
The numbers will be largest in "flooring off" a large hold, and 
smallest in "rounding off" or "finishing" a small hold. If the move- 
ment from hatchway to wing is different a great many men must be 
used, and the same is true if the placing of the goods require much 
time, as in dunnaging fragile goods or in screwing cotton. In some 
cases the hold gang acts as a unit, as when bananas are passed from 
hand to hand ; but more often the gang is subdivided into units of 
two or three men each. One or two men will stand in the square of 
the hatch to swing the draft in the proper direction and to release the 
sling. There may be ten other men in the hold working in pairs. 
Each pair receives a draft in turn, moves it to its proper place, and 
stows it securely. As the hold is gradually filled, the distances be- 
come less and the working space more cramped, so that some of the 
men are released or are sent to another hold. Because of this con- 
tinual change in working conditions and because of the inevitable 
interruptions in transferring the goods to the hold, it is very difficult 
for the foreman in charge of the stowage to keep the hold gang 
at top efficiency. 

It is not customary to carry on the stowage of the hold and the 
between decks simultaneously, although this may be done. Ordi- 
narily the hold is filled first and then the between-deck hatch cover is 
put on and used as a new landing stage. However, if the hold cargo 
cannot be stowed as fast as delivery can be made, alternate drafts 
may be stopped at the level of the between deck and pulled in by 
means of a hook and rope. 

As the stowing proceeds, the stevedore, through his foremen, 
must keep in constant touch with the situation. It may be that the 
goods occupy more space than was allowed for in the calculations, or 
that the space designed for certain freight must be used for other 
goods because of delayed delivery. The men may be withdrawn 
from the hold before the completion of stowing there in order to load 
other goods in the between decks, or they may be temporarily released 
pending the receipt of more freight. The whole process is subject to 
constant change, and it is only after many difficulties have been 



\ 

11 



m t 



182 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



surmounted that the holds are rounded off and the hatch covers 
placed. 

Drawing Up the Stowage Plan. — The tally clerks have kept 
a record of each article transferred and the foremen know where the 
articles are placed. It is therefore an easy matter for the stevedore 
or his clerk to draw up a stowage plan. A stowage blank shows an 
outline of a ship and upon this the clerk first draws lines to repre- 
sent decks and bulkheads. With the space thus subdivided and with 
the information given by the tally clerks and the foremen, he can 
show on the plan the exact place of stowage of each shipment. 

Discussion of Sample Stowage Plans — Saluda. — Figure 26 
shows the stowage plan of the Saluda on a voyage from Phila- 
delphia to Liverpool. This is a form that is used for all vessels 
belonging to the United States Shipping Board, and it gives more 
information than is contained on the stowage plans used by most 
operators. The interesting /acts in connection with this plan are 
given under the heading "Remarks." It will be noted that there is no 
free space in the steamer, despite the fact that the total dead weight 
on board is only 7,312 tons and the cargo measures only 342,865 
cubic feet, whereas the vessel is supposed to carry 7,500 dead- 
weight tons and has a bale capacity ^ of 373,200 cubic feet. The 
difference between the measurement of the cargo and the capacity of 
the vessel is the amount of space that is lost. On this cargo, there- 
fore, the "broken stowage" was 30,365 cubic feet or less than 9 per 
cent of the total measurement of the cargo. This percentage should 
be increased somewhat, however, because part of the cargo has been 
placed on deck, and deck space is not included in the statement of the 
bale capacity. 

Selected 23,000- T^?/? Steamer, — Figure 82 is the stowage plan 
of a combination freight and passenger vessel of 23,000 dead-weight 
tons. Sections have been drawn also in order to show the way in 
which the cargo is stowed. 

Note the method of stowing barrels. Their lengths are fore-and- 
aft because they are placed more easily and carry better in this posi- 
tion. A row of barrels fore-and-aft is called a "longer." The bilges 
of the upper tier of barrels fit into the cant lines of the lower tier at 
the quarters. This economizes space and gives stability. The bungs 

'Bale capacity is less than grain capacity because the grain fills in places 
that would be lost as "broken stowage" in stowing bales or boxes. 



4 



4 



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183 



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CO 

CO 
td 

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a 
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2 
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i84 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



1^ 



of the barrels are up so as to prevent leakage. Dunnage is placed 
in spaces too small for barrels. The bilges of the lower tier of 
barrels are raised off the floor by placing "beds" (small sticks of 
wood) under the quarters. This puts the weight upon the quarters, 
which are the strongest parts of the barrels. The numbers of tiers 
allowed will depend upon the strength of the barrels and the nature 
of their contents, but in any case it should not exceed eight. This 
method of stowing is spoken of as "bilge and cant line ; bungs up and 
bilge free." 

Sections of tanks No. 4 and No. 9 show the method of placing 
shifting boards in bulk wheat. The "boards" are really fore-and-aft 
partitions held in place by shores or guy ropes. Many small holds are 
fitted with only one shifting board, dividing the space into two equal 
parts, but large holds, such as these are divided into four or six sec- 
tions. The shifting of the grain is thus confined to a small area and 
does not cause instability of the vessel. 

Note the manner of placing tubs of butter. Space would be 
economized by stowing every other tub upon its head, but this 
would cause leakage and cannot be done. 

The extensive use of lumber to separate different commodities 
and to form a new floor is characteristic. Lumber is placed on the 
wheat to make a base for the butter, and it separates cotton from 
butter in No. 9 tank and cotton from tobacco in No. 4. In almost 
all cases it is advisable to secure lumber as part of the cargo, for it 
will avoid the extensive use of dunnage, on which freight is not paid. 
Articles which can be used as dunnage or for filling broken stowage 
are frequently accepted at a lower freight rate. 

It is easily seen that the stowage of a vessel with such a large 
number of decks and bulkheads is difficult from the mechanical point 
of view, but the separation of commodities is facilitated. A vessel 
with no between decks and only a few holds can be filled rapidly by 
the transfer equipment, but the goods do not carry well because 
they are jumbled together. 

Portsmouth, — Figure 83 shows the stowage plan of the Ports- 
mouth sailing from Philadelphia to Montevideo, La Plata, and 
Buenos Aires. When cargo is to be discharged at two or more ports, 
the stowage becomes more difficult, for one more problem is added. 
The cargo destined for the first port should be accessible without 
disturbing cargo for the other ports. Moreover, the vessel must be 






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185 



i86 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



r>eaworthy after the removal of cargo at the first port. In addition, 
the distribution of goods in the different holds must be such that dis- 
charge is facilitated. All of the cargo for Montevideo cannot be 
placed in one hold, because it would take a long time to discharge it 
through one hatch and because the vessel would probably be unsea- 
worthy after the discharge. For these reasons, the consignments for 
Montevideo are placed in holds l, 2, and 3, and those for La Plata 
in holds 1, 2, and 4. At each port, therefore, discharge can be con- 
ducted through three hatches at the same time. In no case is it 
necessary to move La Plata cargo in order to get at Montevideo 
cargo, or to move Buenos Aires cargo to reach La Plata cargo. 
Cargo for the first two ports is so evenly divided between the holds 
that the vessel continues to be seaworthy on the different "legs" of 
its voyage. 

On this stowage plan, as well as on the others considered, the use 
of lumber in flooring off and in separating consignments is noticeable. 

As will be shown in Chapter XI it is desirable to have a large 
part of the weight of the cargo low in the vessel in order to insure 
stability, but too little weight near the top causes the vessel to roll 
heavily. Therefore, some of the dead-weight cargo should be placed 
high in the hold or in the 'tween decks. This principle has been 
followed on the Portsmouth by putting steel and other heavy mate- 
rials in the 'tween decks. 



CHAPTER XI 



STOWAGE AND STOWAGE FACTORS* 

Desirability of Getting Full Cargo Paying High Rates.— 
The larger the cargo carried, the higher will be the earnings of the 
voyage. The overhead cost of the vessel goes on continuously ; earn- 
ings are made only according to the amount of freight, passengers, 
and mail carried. The freight agent therefore tries to secure a full 
cargo paying the highest freight rates. Two questions immediately 
arise from this statement: What is a full cargo? What freight 
pays the highest rates ? 

Commodities Paying High Rates.— The complete answer to 
the second question is considered in another volume of this series. It 
is sufficient to point out here that ocean freight rates are determined 
by many factors, such as competitive conditions, cost of service, value 
of service, value of the commodity, and nature of the commodity. 
The factor that is of particular interest here is the nature of the 
commodity. A dangerous article will ordinarily be charged a higher 
rate than one which is perfectly safe, and, in the long run, articles 
that do not fit the requirements of the vessel must pay more than 
those which do. This presents a question as to what sort of com- 
modity does fulfill the requirements of the vessel, and the answer to 
that also shows us what a full cargo is. 

Getting a Full Cargo. — The ideal commodity is one that fills 
all the cargo space and lowers the vessel to its "marks." The amount 
of cargo space is measured according to well-defined rules and is 
expressed in cubic feet. Two capacities at least are given for each 
vessel — the bale capacity and the grain capacity. In measuring the 
grain capacity no deductions are made for loss of space around small 
obstructions, for it is assumed that the grain will flow into all corners 
and completely fill the holds. Bales and boxes, however, will not 
fit snugly into all parts of the hold, and deductions must therefore 
be made. A vessel of 7,000 tons dead weight may have a grain 
capacity of 370,000 cubic feet and a bale capacity of 340,000 cubic 
feet. 



I 

y 



* By Thomas R. Taylor. 



187 



■■ ■ J -J ■■"' 



i88 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



III? 



The owner of this vessel would endeavor to secure a grain cargo 
measuring 370,000 cubic feet or a general cargo measuring 340,000 
cubic feet. He cannot take a greater amount without placing some of 
it on deck, and he does not want to take a smaller amount, for space 
would then be left empty. Empty space means lost revenue, and it 
also means danger. If the holds are not completely filled there is 
a possibility that the cargo will shift and toss about, and this shift- 
ing damages the goods and may lead to loss of the ship. 

But the owner must also consider the weight of the cargo, for he 
is anxious that the freight taken be heavy enough to lower the 
vessel to its "deep-load line." The laws of most countries require 
that each vessel be marked on its sides with circles and lines to repre- 
sent the maximum draft of the ship at different seasons of the year 
and on different routes. No cargo shall be put on after the vessel has 
been lowered to its marks. This requirement is made because it has 
been found that many owners will, if left to their own initiative, 
place their vessels in an unseaworthy condition by overloading. The 
draft thus marked represents not only the maximum, but also the 
most economical loading, for the vessel is carrying the maximum 
amount of weight and also sails better than if it were standing high 
in the water. It is therefore to the interest of the shipowner to find a 
cargo that will lower this vessel to its marks. In the case of the vessel 
of 7,000 dead-weight tons the total weight put on board should be 
7,000 tons. All of this weight, however, is not cargo, for fuel, stores, 
dunnage, etc., are included. If all items other than cargo weigh 
1,000 tons, the weight of the cargo should be 6,000 tons. 

Explanation of Stowage Factor. — Therefore, the problem of the 
owner of this vessel is to find a general cargo that will weigh 6,000 
tons and measure 340,000 cubic feet. This means that each ton must 
measure approximately 57 cubic feet. This figure, expressing the 
measurement of a long ton (2,240 pounds) of a commodity, is called 
the "stowage factor" of the commodity. Stowage factors vary from 
about 9 for pig lead to over 1,000 for unnested wicker baskets. Those 
commodities having a stowage factor less than 40 are termed "dead- 
weight cargo," and those with stowage factors of 40 or more are 
called "measurement freight." This distinction has arisen because 
the shipowner has found it desirable to charge by space if the com- 
modity stows at more than 40 and by weight if it stows at less than 
40. Many rates contain the provision that the charge will be made 



f J 



STOWAGE AND STOWAGE FACTORS 

Stowage Factors for Ship Cargoes 



189 



Commodity 



Type of 
packing 



Abrasives 



Gross 

weight 

(pounds) 



Case. 



Barrel . 
Drum. 



Acetanilide 

Acetone 

Acid : _ , 

Acetic ii^"^!- 

! Barrel . 

Boracic i Barrel' 

Carbolic Barrel. 

Case.. . 



178 



Carbolic crystals 



Hydrochloric 



Muriatic 
Nitric . 



Drum.. . 

Case 

Drum.. . 
Barrel . . 
Carboy. . 
Carboy. . 



Oxalic 



Phosphoric 
Salicylic . 



Stearic . 
Sulphuric 



Tartaric 

Advertising matter 



Aeroplane parts 

Aeroplane propeller and 
Agar-agar 



Agricultural implements 



Barrel. . . . 
Carboy. . . . 

Carboy. . . . 

Barrel . . . . 

Barrel . . . . 

Barrel. . • . 

Barrel . . . . 

Demijohn. 

Barrel . . . . 

Barrel . . . . 

Barrel . . . . 

Bag 

Bag 

Carboy.. . 

Carboy. . 

Drum.. . . 

Drum.. . • 

Drum.. . . 

Barrel . . . 

Barrel . . . 

Bale 

Case 

Case 

Case 

Case 

Case 

Case 

parts, Case 

[Bale 

I Bale 

Box 

Box 

Box 

Box 

Crate 

Package. 



238 
845 

475 
500 

350 

275 

500 

237 
1,100 

84 
315 
344 
190 

235 



Measure- 
ment, in 
cu. ft. and 

twelfths 
of cu. ft. 



8-9 



213 
190 
210 
254 
375 
401 

374 
120 
120 
120 
119 
223 
202 
229 
250 
1,620 
1,720 
900 
260 
250 
106 
600 
224 
1,050 
72 

351 
280 

759 
230 
284 
520 
685 
433 
402 
236 
301 



8-1 1 
24-3 

12-0 
13-8 
1 0-0 

8-0 
12-0 

8-0 

24-3 

2-8 

10-3 

li-ii 

6-0 

8-0 



9-0 

8-0 

6-0 

7-0 
10-3 
10-6 
10-6 

6-0 

7-8 

7-3 

7-8 

S-o 

4-8 

8-0 

6-0 
22-0 
24-3 
II-7 

7-0 

7-2 

3-0 
15-0 

8-0 

30-7 
2-0 
5-0 
3-0 

61-6 

7-3 
9-8 
9-0 

II-5 
8-5 
5-6 
9- 1 1 

1 1-2 



Stow- 
age — 
Number 
of cu. ft. 
occupied 
by long 
ton 



no 



83 

70 

60 
60 
70 
65 
60 

65 
54 
71 
79 
78 
80 
83 



94 
94 
70 
67 
67 
63 
67 
112 

157 

150 

144 
50 
52 
59 
55 
33 
33 
31 
60 

64 
63 
56 
80 

65 
62 

32 
24 
182 
70 
76 

38 

68 

31 
94 
83 



Remarks 



For optical 
use; carborun- 
dum stone 
and drilling 
diamond. See 
also Carbo- 
rundum. Em- 
ery, Grind- 
stones, etc. 



1 10 gallons 



See Acid, Hy- 
drochloric 



5 gallons 



no gallons 
55 gallons 

Import 



Import 



Note —Measurements are given in conformity with shipping practice, in cubic feet 
«nd Twelfths of a cubic foot. Thus. "8-9" signifies eight and nme-twelfths cubic feet. 

Srowage represents he number' of ?ubic*'feet of cargo space in which a long ton 
(22^0 Dounds) may be shipped. Thus, no cubic feet is the cargo space required 
for t ton of abraTwes packefin cases averaging 178 pounds gross and measuring 8-9 
cubic feet. 



m 



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190 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 

Stowage Factors for Ship Cargoes — Continued 



Commodity 



Type of 
packing 



Agricultural machinery. 

Air compressor 

Air-compressor pump... 

Alabastine 

Albumen: 

Blood 

Egg 



Unspecified 
Alcohol : 

Grain 

Methyl . . . 
Wood . . . . 



Case. 

Case. 
Case. 
Case. 
Case. 
Case. 



Gross 

weight 

(pounds) 



Cask. 



112 
263 

2SO 
249 

244 



Measure- 
ment, in 

cu. ft. and 
twelfths 

of cu. ft. 



2-0 

8-0 
5-8 
6-4 
6-0 
5-1 1 



Ale 



Alkali 



Barrel . 
Drum.. 
Barrel . 
Barrel. 
Drum.. 

Case.. . 
Case.. . 
Cask... 
Barrel. 
Drum. 
Bag . . . 



Allspice -, - 

Almonds gaK 

I Bag 

Bag 

Bag. 

Aloes ^^^ 

Case 



Alum 



Case. . . 
Case. . . 
Bag . . . 

Barrel . 
Barrel . 
Barrel . 
Cask. . . 



Alum earth 

Aluminium: ,_ 

Hydrate 'gag 

Barrel 



Ingots 
Ore .. 



Sulphate 



Box 



336 
848 
400 
380 
850 
160 
180 
140 



325 
823 
140 



223 
no 
i3i 
135 



127 
118 
220 

375 
426 

425 
1,300 

275 
350 
130 



11-8 
23-4 

lO-O 

12-0 

24-4 

4-3 

3-6 



Stow- 
age- 
Number 
of cu. ft. 
occupied 
by long 
ton 



6-6 
8-0 
6-0 



Ware 



Amboyna wood 
Ammonia: 

Anhydrous . 



Barrel . 
Barrel . 
Barrel. 
Barrel . 
Barrel. 
Box . 
Box.. 
Box . . 



Box 



375 
425 
426 
320 

425 
227 

45 
251 

120 



9-3 
5-4 
l-il 
a-o 



2-0 
1-9 
8-9 
10-3 
1 0-0 
10-3 
28-6 

50 
7-0 
a-4 



10-3 
10-3 

lO-O 

6-9 

10-0 

9-3 

5-8 

26-8 

10-3 



Aqua 
Dry 



Cylinder. 
Cylinder. 
Cylinder. 
Cylinder. 
Drum.. . 
Drum.. . 
Barrel . . 



268 
287 
393 
197 
970 

943 
611 



5-0 
S-o 
7-3 
2-10 
24-3 

23-4 
it-o 



36 

67 
51 
57 
54 
54 



60 

78 
62 
61 

71 
64 
59 
60 
56 
54 
45 
21 
96 
68 
65 
93 
108 
32 
33 



35 
33 
89 
61 

52 
54 
55 

40 

45 
40 



65 
54 
52 
47 
52 
91 
282 
256 

191 
50 

41 

42 
45 
42 
56 

ss 
65 



Remarks 



See Machinery 
See Machinery 
See Machinery 



Import 

Import. T i n 
container in a 
wooden case 



Bottled 

Bottled 

1 1 dozen pints 

Bulk 



Shelled 
Shelled 



Two 5 - gallon 
oil cans in 
wooden case 
covered with 
gunny cloth 

Import 



Lump 

Powdered 

Powdered 



See Ore. 

minium 
Lump 
Powdered 
Powdered 
Powdere3 
Powdered 



Alu- 



Cooking 
sils 



uten- 



Standard 

Large 

Small 

1 10 gallons 



I 



i 



STOWAGE AND STOWAGE FACTORS 191 

on the weight or measurement basis "at ship's option." The dividing 
line was established at 40 apparently because the older type of vessel 
would be filled without being lowered to its marks by freight that 

stowed at more than 40. 

The Average Stowage Factor,— T\it vessel that we have been 
considering would pay best and sail easiest if it carried freight with 
a stowage factor of about 57- But vessels differ widely m their 
cargo-carrying capacity. Some are filled and lowered by cargo 
stowing at 40 ; others by cargo stowing at 90 or more. It is difficult 
to say what the average would be. Perhaps the ordinary cargo 
steamer should take freight stowing at from 52 to SS^ and the aver- 
age sailing vessel freight that stows at from 65 to 70. The sailmg 
vessel has greater cubic capacity because of its construction and 
because no space is taken up by boilers and machinery. 

Selecting Cargo by Lists of Stowage Factors.-T\it stowage 
factors of most commodities are known to the booking agent or he 
can easily find the factof of a given article by consulting some list 
of factors. Almost all steamship companies have their own lists, 
but the most complete and satisfactory one is that originally pub- 
lished by the War Trade Board. An extract from this is shown on 
pages 189 and 190 in order to illustrate the proper make-up of 
such a list. Knowing the stowage factors of different commodities 
and the capacity and dead-weight tonnage of his vessel, the agent can 
easily determine what sort of cargo will best suit his needs. But his 
problem is complicated by other considerations, unless he has the 
choice of bulk cargoes of different character. He may not have a 
choice at all, or he may have to accept commodities that vary greatly 
in their stowage factors. If he has no choice, he will in most cases, 
of course, take whatever is offered rather than allow the vessel to 
sail empty. If he is offered part cargoes of several different com- 
modities, as would be the case if he were securing freight for a 
liner or for many tramps, he would try to accept a combination that 
would provide the necessary weight and volume. The problem of 
combining two commodities is relatively easy, and can be worked out 
by using the formula given on page 192.2 ^^^ 

•Formula applies only in cases where the stowage factor oft»ie lighter 
cornmodity is greater than the stowage factor of the vessel: that is, when 

b is greater than — 



192 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 

V 



x = 



(fzi) 



in which 

X = number of tons taken of the commodity having the higher 

stowage factor. 

V = bale capacity in cubic feet. 

T = total number of tons of cargo that can be carried = dead- 
weight tonnage of vessel less tonnage of fuel, stores, etc. 

a = the lower of the two stowage factors. 

b = the higher of the two stowage factors. 

If we use again the illustration of the vessel with a bale capacity 
of 340,000 cubic feet and a dead-weight tonnage of 7,000, of which 
6,000 tons can be made up of cargo, and if we assume that the agent 
is offered steel billets stowing at 10 cubic feet and cotton stowing at 
90 cubic feet, the problem would be worked out as follows : 



X = 



/ 340,ooo __ ^^ 
\ 6,000 

90- 10 



)e. 



,000 _ (56.7-10) 6,000 
80 



= 3,500 tons, approximately number of tons of cotton 
that should be accepted. 
The number of tons of steel would then be 6,000—3,500, or 2,500. 
To prove that this cargo would provide the proper volume it is 
only necessary to multiply the number of tons of the two commodi- 
ties by their respective stowage factors and add the results, as follows : 
Volume of cotton = 3,500 x 90 = 315*000 cubic feet 
Volume of steel = 2,500 x 10 = 25,000 cubic feel 

Total volume of cargo = 340,000 cubic feet 

If there are a number of commodities instead of only two the 
problem becomes more difficult, and is worked out empirically. As- 
sume that the ''cargo list" of the freight accepted for the 7,OOO.ton 
vessel shows the articles in the table on the opposite page. 

The booking clerk, upon reaching this point, knows that he should 
now secure 3,500 tons with a measurement of 90,000 cubic feet. The 
automobiles have taken up so much room that, to balance the cargo, 
dead-weight stowing at about 25 must be obtained if possible. He 
therefore tries to book rails, steel plates, or other heavy materials, 






STOWAGE AND STOWAGE FACTORS 



193 



Articles 

4,000 bales cotton 

SCO tons steel billets . . . 
1,000 cases patent leather 
1 ,000 cases gloves ....... 

2,000 cases dried fruit . . . 

300 crates automobiles . 



Weight in 1 Measurement 
tons in cubic feet 



1,000 
500 
190 
80 
no 
620 



90,000 

5,000 

19,000 
16,000 

5,500 

115,000 



2,500 



250,500 



and he may offer a reduction in freight rates in order to get such 
freight. It is a common practice to quote "berth-cargo" rates on com- 
modities that are usually available and can be used to round off a 
cargo satisfactorily, the berth-cargo rate being lower than the ordi- 
nary rate. In many cases, however, the agent can secure the desired 
freight at the full rate. There may be a large supply of steel m 
port waiting for transportation over the route taken by that vessel 
and the needed amount can be easily obtained. If light measure- 
ment cargo is wanted, it is possible that there will be a supply of 
tobacco, cotton, or other measurement freight from which to draw. 
In some cases the required class of freight is not to be had even at 
berth-cargo rates, and the vessel must sail with a poorly balanced 
cargo or must proceed to a near-by port where such freight is avail- 
able. Liners, sailing on schedule, cannot be held to collect a well- 
balanced cargo, nor can they be sent to adjacent ports, so it is common 
for them to sail in a partially laden condition. The owner or char- 
terer of a tramp, however, may find it advisable to send his ship to 
another port. This is a very common practice in some trades, as in 
the cork-carrying trade of Portugal and Spain. Cork has a very 
high stowage factor, so that a vessel laden with cork alone will 
ride high in the water and will be in an unseaworthy condition. 
Therefore, many vessels, before loading their cork, will sail to an^ 
adjacent port for a part cargo of iron ore or other dead-weight. ^" 
Lessened Importance of Obtaining Full Cargo.— Tht whole prob- 
lem of securing an ideally balanced cargo is not so important as it 
formerly was, because the time factor is now of greater consideration 
and because the modern vessel is larger and can adjust its draft to 
some extent by filling or emptying its water tanks. The master of 
the old sailing vessel felt compelled to get a cargo that satisfied the 



fl 



1^ li 



194 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



requirements of his ship. The loss of a few days in port did not 
mean much when compared with the loss of revenue or with the 
danger of the long voyage. Plenty of dead weight was required in 
order to make the vessel stable at sea ; the hold had to be completely 
filled or the tossing of the small craft by the waves would cause a 
shifting of the cargo; and a full cargo was necessary to show profits 
for the long period of the voyage. The owner of a modern steamer, 
however, can increase profits best by decreasing his "turn-around." 
He depends more on speed and less on full cargoes than does the 
owner of the sailing vessel. He can make speed best by spending 
fewer days in port, and therefore he loads quickly the freight that is 
available, even though it does not give a well-balanced cargo. 
If it is too light, water can be taken into the tanks ; if it is so heavy 
that it does not fill the space, some compartments can be left empty, 
or it can be secured against shifting easily as compared with the 
difficulty of securing the cargo of a sailing vessel. 

But even now the matter of properly adjusting the accepted 
freight to the vessel demands a great deal of consideration. As 
already suggested, there are two problems. One is that of safely 
securing against shifting dead-weight cargo that does not fill the 
space allotted to it. The second problem, which is more serious, 
is that of compressing measurement freight into the smallest 
possible volume in order to get the maximum amount into the 
space. 

Stowing Cargo with Low Stowage Factors.— There are a 
number of commodities that will lower a vessel to its marks before the 
space is filled, and some of these are very important commercial 
products. Iron ore is perhaps the best example of such a commodity. 
It is of such commercial importance and fits the ordinary vessel so 
poorly that special fleets of steamers have been designed to carry it. 
If heavy ore is put in the hold of a vessel designed to carry general 
cargo, the deep-load line will be reached before the space is filled, 
and it then becomes necessary to take precautions against the shifting 
of the ore. It was seen that the logical thing to do would be to 
contract the hold space, and this plan has been carried into effect. 
The style of steamer adopted by the Bethlehem Steel Company to 
bring iron ore from Chile has a double bottom raised 17 feet above 
the keel to contract the hold space and raise the center of gravity of 
the ore, and its hold breadth is only one-half the beam of the ves- 



STOWAGE AND STOWAGE FACTORS 



195 



sel.^ Such vessels can carry ore, coal, and other heavy bulk cargoes 
more economically and safely than can the ordinary steamer. 

However, the movement of heavy freight is not confined to spe- 
cially designed vessels. Much of it is carried by the common types 
of steamer in cargo lots or less than full cargo lots. If combined 
with other freight having a higher stowage factor, the cargo can be 
properly balanced in all probability ; but if it makes up a large part, 
or all, of the cargo, special stowage measures must be adopted to 
insure safety. The mass cannot be permitted to lie loose in the 
hold, nor should all the weight be concentrated. The stevedore must 
"blow it up" to raise the center of gravity in order that the vessel will 
not roll excessively. The method of doing this for rails is described 
as follows by Hillcoat (p. 148): 

Railway iron should be stowed fore-and-aft until level with the 
keelson, then diagonally, that is, grating fashion, keeping the rails 
well apart so that the weight will be raised to make the ship easy in a 

seaway. 

Protect the ship's side with bars laid fore-and-aft on top of each 
other where the stowing is diagonal. Use rough sawn battens be- 
tween the tiers when necessary. 

Finish by stowing fore-and-aft, locking the two top tiers or so by 
inverting the upper rail; then lay 3-inch planks across the cargo 
under the beams and tomb them well down, placing the tombs about 
5 feet apart; also wedge the upper tiers at the sides by driving 
large wedges down on planks put up and down before stowing for 

the purpose. 

The 'tween-deck cargo is stowed fore-and-aft and is well tombed 

down like the lower hold. 

The end tiers have also to be lashed with chain to keep them from 
fetching away when the ship is pitching heavily, a space being left 
about a third of the distance from the midship stanchions, between 
them and the side, for the purpose. Bars are laid across the top 
and the lashing passed around them and the 'tween-deck beam. With 
a laid 'tween-deck, rails will have to be laid across the first tier on 
the deck to lash down to. The lashings are wedged up tight and will 
require attending to at sea. 

Reducing Stowage Factors. — Most of the articles that arc 
carried by liner services, and even by tramps, on the more important 

'Discussion of H. P. Frear on address of H. C. Sadler, "Bulk Freight 
Vessels of the Great Lakes," Trans. Intern. Eng. Cong., Vol. X (1915)1 123. 



■a-l« 



196 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

trade routes of the world have such high stowage factors that they 
fill the holds before bringing the vessel to their marks. The greater 
saving in shipping space, therefore, can be made by reducmg the 
stowage factors, or by adopting stowage measures that will permit a 
greater number of packages to be stowed in a given space. In some 
instances saving can be made by changing the design of vessels. 

Advantages of Reduction,-A5 previously stated, the average 
cargo steamer is completely filled and weighted by articles stowing 
at from about 52 to SS- It is not recommended that all articles be 
packed so that each ton will occupy 52 to 5S cubic feet, for this would 
be impossible of realization and would be uneconomical for those 
articles with a low stowage factor; but it would be desirable if the 
stowage factors of many commodities could be reduced to approxi- 
mately this figure. This is a problem for the manufacturmg ex- 
porter or other shipper of the goods. His backwardness m attackmg 
the problem may be explained partly on the ground that he is un- 
aware of its existence and partly by other packing complexities that 
demand his consideration. As far as known, the manufacturer has 
never yet been told what the stowage factor of his goods should be, 
and it is doubtful whether he even knows what "stowage factor 
means. He has been given much advice concerning packing to avoid 
damage, packing to avoid excessive custom charges, allowable maxi- 
mum weights and measurements, and other matters, but he has never 
been told that the average vessel will carry the maximum amount if 
its cargo occupies about S5 cubic fe^t to the ton. Perhaps he would 
not be interested in such a statement, for he would not see that 
it had any direct bearing on his freight charges. In most cases 
there would be no direct immediate effect, but a general reduction in 
freight rates. Ocean freight rates are fixed largely by competitive 
conditions. If the world tonnage could be handled by fewer vessels, 
there would be greater competition and rates would inevitably be 
lowered. The probable effect in one trade alone can be illustrated by 
considering the case of cotton. 

The American standard bale of cotton stows at about 125 cubic 
feet The average annual export of cotton for the period of 1914- 
IQ18 was about 7,000,000 bales, or 1400,000 tons, since the average 
bale weighs 500 pounds. The total shipping space annually neces- 
sary to carry our cotton to foreign markets was, therefore, 195,000,. 
000 cubic feet. This would require 551 steamers of 350,000 cubic 



STOWAGE AND STOWAGE FACTORS 197 

feet bale capacity and a dead weight of 7,500 tons. Assume now 
that our export bales could be compressed to the density of the bales 
from India and China, giving a stowage factor of 50. Only 70,000,- 
000 cubic feet of space would then be required and this would be 
provided by 200 vessels of the size considered. If each steamer 
engaged was employed continuously in this service and made 
8 round trips a year, 69 vessels would be required to carry the cotton 
as now baled and only 25 if the bales were packed according to 
Chinese custom. Forty-four vessels would thus be made available 
for other service, and if other service were not readily available, 
their owners would cut the freight rates on cotton in order to get a 
share of that business. The Shipping Board has recognized the 
great saving in space that could be made by better packing of cotton, 
and, for some time, refused to allow the operators of its vessels to 
accept the standard bale, thus forcing the shippers to put up high 
density bales having a stowage factor of about 85. 

Reduction in War Period.— Tht shortage of shipping during the 
World War accomplished wonders in the general reduction of stow- 
age factors. This was noticeable to those compiling the list of factors 
for the War Trade Board. More compact packing of a given com- 
modity would decrease its stowage factor by 5 or more. Perhaps the 
most important work done along this line in the United States was 
that of the Packing Service Branch of the Army. In order to econo- 
mize space in supply ships, radical changes in packing were adopted. 
Clothing, blankets, etc., were baled instead of cased, and this 
alone caused a saving of over $49,000,000 in freight rates during 

The space occupied by a 5-ton Packard truck was decreased from 
1,000 cubic feet to 268 cubic feet, and similar reductions were made 
with other cased goods. 

Reduction by Eliminating Broken Stowage.— It was easy for the 
Army authorities to specify the kind of packing acceptable, but the 
shipowner cannot do this. He must take the goods as they are 
delivered, unless the packing is unsafe, and he must stow them in the 
least possible space. He cannot repack the articles, but he can 
economize space by eliminating "broken stowage." The first step 
toward this end is taken by the booking clerk, who should secure some 



* Capt. H. R. Moody, "Packing for Export." Official Proceedings of the 
Sixth National Foreign Trade Convention, 557-563. 



198 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



small package freight to be used to fill in the broken stowage around 
the larger units. The next step is taken by the pier superintendent 
or stevedore in planning the stowage so that packages will fit snugly 
in the space allotted to them. And the final steps are taken by the 
foreman, whose duty it is to see that the packages are compactly 

stowed. 

The work of the booking agent, although important, requires 

little further explanation. If he has booked a large number of bulky 

packages of different shapes and sizes, he should also secure, even at 

a reduction in rates, a number of small boxes, bags, and articles to 

fill the spaces left between the larger packages. In some cases the 

clerk does his work correctly, but it goes to naught because the smaller 

articles are not delivered to the hold in time to be of any use. This 

might be the fault of the shipper, the transportation medium, or the 

stevedore, who does not have transfer from the pier made at the ^ 

proper time. 

Planning the distribution of the cargo to economize space is 
difficult to describe because it varies with each cargo. One or two 
illustrations will best indicate the gain that can be made by careful 
planning. If the cargo consists of lumber and barrel oil, it would 
obviously be unwise to place the oil at the bottom of the hold. The 
beam there is contracted and the number of "longers" that could 
be placed would be limited. If the lumber is placed on the ceiling 
it conforms well to the shape of the lower hold and the great breadth 
of beam above is reserved for the barrels. This expedites the stow- 
age of the barrels and reduces the broken stowage considerably. 
Another shipment may consist of a number of boxed automobiles, 
each measuring 6 feet by 6 feet by 10 feet, and the stevedore wishes 
to place the maximum number in a between space measuring 6 feet 
in height by 45 feet fore-and-aft by 64 feet beam. If he puts the 
boxes so that their lengths are fore-and-aft he can get in 6 rows of 
7 boxes each, or a total of 42 boxes. If the lengths of the boxes are 
athwartship, there will be 10 rows with 4 boxes in each row, or a total 
of 40 boxes. By figuring this out on paper beforehand, the stevedore 
may avoid loss of time and loss of space. 

The foreman and the individual longshoreman must exercise 
discretion in eliminating broken stowage between units of cargo. 
They must place the larger units compactly and fill in, if possible, 
any vacancies that unavoidably occur. Compact stowing requires the 



i 



STOWAGE AND STOWAGE FACTORS 199 

use of both muscle and brain. Muscle is needed to force the units 
together. In stowing sacks of sugar, flour, etc., the longshoremen 
should throw the sacks forcefully into place, thus subjectmg the 
contents to pressure and gaining a little space with each sack. On 
some classes of cargo pressure is applied mechanically. It was 
formerly the practice to spend a great deal of time in compression of 
cargoes of raw fibers, seeds, tobacco, and other products, but this is 
no longer done to any large extent except with cotton cargoes. In 
stowing cotton at most of the southern ports of the United States, 
hand screws are used to press the bales tightly together in order that a 
larger number of bales may be placed in the hold. "Screwing" of 
standard bales results in a saving of about 2 cubic feet to the bale, 
so that, for a large cargo of cotton, it is an economical operation m 
spite of the time consumed. 
' Skill is displayed in securing compact stowage of packages of 
irregular shape, and in properly arranging the stowage of two or 
more differently shaped packages in one space. In stowmg car 
wheels, for example, the flanges of one pair must be set against 
the axles of the next, and the space above and below the axles should 
be filled with cases of the proper size and strength. An illustration of 
the thought and care necessary is afforded by the method of stowing 
completely assembled locomotives on the Feltore. Two thicknesses 
of oak planks (3" by 12" by 38') were first laid on the ceiling, 
and into these the wheel flanges were buried to their depth by the 
weight of the locomotives. Each locomotive was lowered by a 100- 
ton barge crane into the exact spot it was to occupy or as near thereto 
as possible. They were placed as close as their cow-catchers would 
allow, with the pilots toward the after bulkheads. In this way two 
athwartship rows of 5 locomotives each were placed. The space left 
against the forward bulkhead was partially filled with a locomotive 
placed athwartship. Wedges were put under the springs to distribute 
. the weight and all brakes were set. Six blocks of wood of the proper 
shape were then placed on each boiler, and large timbers were laid 
on these, lengthwise of the engines. Baled hay was placed m all 
vacancies around the locomotives and five thicknesses of bales were 
placed on top of the timbers over the boilers. This provided a 
solid, secure floor upon which tenders were stowed, blocked and 
dunnaged. There was still 10 feet of space left above the tier of ten- 
ders and this was filled with hay, oats, and motor trucks. The 



i 



ii 



200 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



whole cargo consisted of 33 complete locomotives and tenders, 2,400 
tons of rails and splices, 2,300 tons of hay, 600 tons of oats, 53 
motor trucks, and 1 thirty-foot steam launch. 

Deck Loads. — With goods having exceptionally high stowage 
factors, the vessel cannot be lowered to its marks by below-deck cargo, 
even with the most careful stowage. Nonperishable goods can be 
stowed on deck, however, and this is a common practice with ship 
loads of lumber, cork, and other commodities. For the carriage of 
lumber, the most important commercial commodity of this class, 
especially designed vessels have been built, having a wide beam to 
compensate for the high center of gravity, a high freeboard and a 
great forward sheer to prevent wash of the deck cargo, and a bridge 
far aft to provide a long unobstructed deck space for the deck cargo.* 

'Johnson and Huebncr, Principles of Ocean Transportation, 44-46. 



i 



REFERENCES 

Board of Gommissioners of the Port of New Orleans, Analysis of Pres- 
ent Operation of the Port of New Orleans, Vol. I, 19 15. Prefaced 
by Ford, Bacon, and Davis, Engineers. 

HiLLCOAT, Chas. W., Notes on the Stowage of Ships. Imray, Lowrie, 
Norie & Wilson, London, 1918. 

Johnson, E. R., and Huebner, G. G., Principles of Ocean Trans- 
portation. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1918. 

Johnson, P. W., Encyclopedia of Transportation. The Wheeler & 
Wheeler Co., Chicago, 1892. 

Stevens, Robert W., On the Stowage of Ships and Their Cargoes. 
Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1894. 

U. S. Bureau of Standards: "Table of Unit Displacement of Com- 
modities," Circular No. 77. Government Printing Office, Wash- 
ington, 1 91 9. 



CHAPTER XII 



LAWS GOVERNING STOWAGE' 

Necessity of Laws and Regulations.— The large number of 
cases of total or partial loss of ships and of cargoes of goods indicates 
that vessels are not properly constructed to withstand the dangers of 
ocean navigation or that they are not properly stowed or operated. 
The seriousness of these losses has long occupied the minds of those 
men who are primarily interested in the safe transportation of goods 
and passengers by water. Early in the history of maritime affairs it 
was seen that the individual shipowner, who looked for profits only 
and whose desire for large profits often overcame his better judgment, 
could not be depended upon to develop the safety and comfort of 
transport essential to the successful growth of a large and prosper- 
ous merchant marine, carrying passengers and freight to all parts 
of the world under all sorts of conditions. It was necessary to curb 
the spirit of daring that accompanies sea life, and to regulate the 
construction and operation of vessels in order that international 
commerce and intercourse might grow naturally and without inter- 
ruption. 

Gradually, therefore, a set of regulations has been developed to 
insure maximum safety at sea. These regulations are unsatisfac- 
tory in many ways. They are unnecessarily restrictive in some mat- 
ters and too lenient in others, and they have been issued and enforced 
by so many different agencies and bodies that it is difficult for a man 
new to maritime affairs to understand them. Yet it is absolutely 
necessary that they be understood in order that they may be obeyed 
and that suggestions may be offered for their improvement. If our 
laws and regulations are to satisfy the men of the shipping world, 
these men not only must be thoroughly acquainted with the present 
laws but must be prepared to plan changes in their wording and in 
their administration. The time is not far distant when the United 



I 



*By Thomas R. Taylor. 



201 



1ir*<- 



,'^"JPP4 j 



M 



202 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



1. 

2. 

3- 

4- 



States will be the leading maritime nation and its growth in equip- 
ment must be accompanied by an expansion and simplification of 

maritime law. 

For purposes of discussion the present laws and regulations 
affecting the stowage of vessels may be grouped as follows : 

I. Laws and regulations relative to the general seaworthi- 
ness of vessels. 

Governmental laws applicable to all vessels. 
Governmental laws applicable to passenger 

vessels. 
Rules of insurance underwriters. 
Rules of classification societies. 
11. Laws and regulations relative to the stowage and car- 
riage of certain classes of goods. 

1. Grain. 

2. Live stock. 

3. Dangerous goods. 



Laws Relative to Seaworthiness of Vessels 

Governmental Laws Applicable to All Vessels. — The laws 
of most nations make it a crime for a shipowner to send his vessel 
to sea unless it is fit to carry cargo and is in a seaworthy condition. 
The Harter Act, passed by the United States in 1893, is typical in 
its provisions. It provides that if the shipowner has not showed 
negligence, fault or failure in proper loading, stowage, custody, care, 
or proper delivery, and if he has used diligence in equipping, man- 
ning, provisioning, and outfitting the vessel, he shall not be respon- 
sible for loss or damage to goods due to (a) faults and errors in 
navigation and management ; (b) dangers of the sea or other navi- 
gable water; (c) acts of God; (d) acts of public enemies; (e) 
inherent defects, quality or vice of the goods carried; (f) insuffi- 
ciency of package containing the goods; (g) seizure under legal 
process ; (h) act or omission of the shipper or owner of the goods ; 
(i) the saving or attempt to save life or property at sea, and (j) 
deviation from course to save or to attempt to save life or property 

at sea. 

In interpreting this law and similar laws of other nations, the 



LAWS GOVERNING STOWAGE 203 

courts have decided that the shipowner is responsible for loss or 
damage occasioned in any of the following ways : 

(a) Failure to put the vessel in a condition to receive cargo with- 
out damage to the cargo. The holds must be clean and fit m every 
way to contain goods without damage. 

(b) Failure to fit the vessel in design, structure, condition, and 
equipment to encounter the ordinary perils of the voyage: The 
shipowner is responsible for defects in the ship or its equipment, but 
he is assisted in his efforts to disclose the defects. The vessel is 
built and outfitted under the supervision of trained inspectors of 
the classification societies, and certain regulations are laid down 
for the owner to follow in deciding what the condition and equip- 
ment should be. Thus, the laws of many maritime -^.-s (no 
including the United States) specify the draft to which he vessel 
Tay be lowered, and the owner must be guided by the load lines 
n^arked on the sides of his ship. A vessel that is unfit may be de- 
tained at British ports, and the inspectors of the United States 
Steamboat Inspection Service may refuse permission to operate an 

unfit steam vessel. , 

The vessel must not only be fit to encounter ordinary sea perils 
but it must also be fit to carry safely to their destination goods of 
any particular kind that it guarantees to transport. If it under- 
takes to carry chilled meat it must be capable of keepmg that meat at 
the proper temperature throughout the voyage. 

(c) Failure to provide a competent master and a competent and 

sufficient crew. , 

(d) Failure to provide a pilot at a port where one may be 
secured and the nature of navigation requires one, unless the master 
himself has a competent knowledge of navigation. 

(e) Loading a cargo which is not a safe one for such a voyage 
as might be reasonably expected. 

(f) Failure to stow the cargo in such a way that it will be kept 

safe and intact until delivery. . ^ • , 1 

It will be seen from the above that the owner of a freight vessel 
is limited in his control of that vessel. He must build it in a speci- 
fied manner, he must provide competent officers and crew, he must 
make it fit to receive cargo, he must not load cargo that is unsafe, and 
he must stow the cargo safely. If he does not do these^^-f J^ 
must suffer the consequences ; and the chief fault to find with the 



204 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



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laws is the fact that it is "consequences" rather than prevention of 
movement that he must face. In other words, there is no representa- 
tive of the United States who has the authority to examine a vessel 
before its sailing and to prohibit, if necessary, its departure. The 
owner of a freight vessel still has the power of sending his vessel to 
sea in an unseaworthy condition, and he will do so if the chances of 
reward seem greater than the chances of loss. The work of the super- 
vising inspectors of the United States Steamboat Inspection Service 
should be enlarged to include the inspection of each vessel before it 
sails. Such inspection is now provided by the insurance under- 
writers, but their decisions are not mandatory. 

Govemimental Laws Applicable to Passenger Vessels.— 
Regulation of the equipment and operation of passenger vessels 
is more strict than the regulation of freight vessels because of the 
greater risk to human life in the case of passenger vessels. The 
Passenger Act of 1882 and other acts passed by the United States 
define the shipowner's responsibility and specify the conditions under 
which the vessel may proceed. Most of these specifications, how- 
ever, do not deal with the question of stowage of cargo, and there- 
fore cannot be considered here. As in the case of freight vessels, the 
laws of the United States are faulty in that they provide only for 
yearly inspection, rather than for inspection prior to sailing. A 
vessel carrying a thousand passengers may be so loaded that it is in 
imminent danger of catastrophe, yet it may sail unmolested. As with 
freight steamers, the supervising inspectors of the United States 
Steamboat Inspection Service of the Department of Commerce make 
the required annual inspection of hull, machinery and equipment, 
but they do not have the authority to inspect before each sailing. 

Rules of Insurance Underwriters.— Owing to the necessity of 
protecting their own interests, men who underwrote insurance on 
hulls, cargo, and freight felt compelled to lay down certain rules and 
regulations to be followed by the shipowner. The first underwriters 
of marine insurance were those who gathered at Lloyd's coffee house 
in London in the eighteenth century, and out of this group arose an 
underwriters' association and a classification society, both of which 
are still internationally known as Lloyd's. The purpose of the 
underwriters' association was to facilitate the distribution of insur- 
ance risks among the members and to form a rate system the 
basis of which would be the risk factor. In determining the degree 



LAWS GOVERNING STOWAGE 



205 



of risk a primary consideration was the stowage of cargo, and there- 
fore this and similar organizations have always played an important 
part in determining the method and place of stowing goods. In this 
country we have a number of such associations, well represented in 
New York by the Board of Underwriters of New York and the 
National Board of Marine Underwriters. In addition there are a 
large number of individual marine insurance companies with capital 
enough to carry alone the insurance on a ship or on several ships. 
The associations or companies have representatives in the different 
ports to act as inspectors of risks, and these men have the power to 
refuse insurance altogether or to fix the rate. 

If the shipowner desires insurance on a cargo he applies to an 
underwriter, who, in order to fix the rate, looks up the record of the 
ship and its officers, and sends his representative to watch the loading 
process and to prescribe, if necessary, how the stowage shall be 
carried out. If the stevedore, the master, and the insurance repre- 
sentative work in harmony, there is no difficulty, but in many cases 
it is to the advantage of the stevedore and master to conceal matters 
from the inspector, and this places the inspector at a disadvantage, 
for it makes his inspection more difficult, and he cannot well refuse 
insurance unless he can prove before a court that the vessel is unsea- 
worthy. His is the only check on the stowage of the vessel, and it 
is fortunate that the average intelligence and loyalty of the inspec- 
tors are so high that few faults escape their attention and condemna- 
tion. 

In addition to providing this inspection system, the underwriters 
have in some instances issued instructions for the guidance of their 
representatives and of others. Most, if not all, of these instructions 
refer to dangerous cargo and will be mentioned more fully later. 

Rules of Classification Societies.— The men who gathered at 
Lloyd's coffee house in London were responsible for the organization 
of the first classification society. As its name implies, the society 
was formed to classify vessels with respect to their seaworthiness. In 
order to give them an initial classification it was necessary to inspect 
the vessels during their construction, and changes in classification 
could be determined only by periodic inspection thereafter. Vessels 
that are assigned a high classification and are maintained there have 
low insurance rates, and it is, therefore, to the advantage of the 
shipowner to have his vessel in a class as high as possible. It is the 



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206 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

general practice to have classified all vessels, and the details of con 
struction and equipment are therefore submitted to the representa- 
tives of the classification society in order that suggestions may be 
followed. The classification of all vessels and the essential mforma- 
tion concerning them is published in large books that are familiar 
sights in any marine insurance office. 

Lloyd's is still the most influential classification society and its 
annual Register of British and Foreign Shipping is the standard 
source of information on vessels. But there are similar societies 
in other maritime countries. The United States is represented by 
the rapidly growing Bureau of American and Foreign Shipping, 
which publishes the American Record of Shipping. Some of these 
societies are semi-governmental in nature and are delegated to enforce 
certain maritime laws. Thus, Lloyd's has been given the authority 
to regulate the marking of load lines on British vessels. 

It will be seen, therefore, that these societies exert a powerful 
influence in determining the seaworthiness of vessels, and that their 
inspections have been of immense public benefit. It is largely because 
their work has proved so satisfactory that the need of inspection by 
government officials has been overlooked. And yet they are not en- 
tirely free of fault, for they must make concessions m order to get 
business, and it would seem, therefore, that some centra public 
agency could perform the same service even more satisfactorily. 

Laws Relative to the Stowage of Certain Classes of Goods 

Laws and regulations for the stowage and carriage of certain 
classes of goods have been issued by so many diflEerent agencies that 
it is almost impossible for one man to be familiar with all the 
instructions. Port authorities, city departments, insurance under- 
writers and boards, surveyors of vessels, steamship companies, and 
various governmental bureaus and departments all have the author- 
ity to prescribe regulations pertaining to stowage of cargo, and the 
result is duplication, contradiction, and omission. Duplication and 
contradiction are to be noted most in the regulations relative to the 
stowage of dangerous goods. Port and city authorities, pier owners, 
and governmental bureaus give instructions as to the time, place, 
and method of loading dangerous goods; underwriters, steamship 
companies, and governmental bureaus prescribe the stowage. 1 he 



LAWS GOVERNING STOWAGE 



207 



■ 






, 



master of the vessel is therefore often at a loss as to whose instruc 
tions to follow, and especially so if he is proceeding to a country 
where even different regulations are in force. Because it is so easy to 
be confused, it is very desirable that we point out here the principal 
agencies that have published regulations on this subject. 

Grain.-The stowage of grain has been subject to much regula- 
tion because of the relatively large number of casualties that have 
befallen members of the grain fleet of the world. Casualties are 
numerous because of the seasonal and dangerous character of the 
trade. Soon after the crop is gathered large numbers of tramp vessels 
gather at the exporting ports, at most of which the facilities are made- 
quate and the supervision is very incomplete. Many of these vessels 
are unfit to carry a commodity of this sort. Grain cargoes shift 
very easily and are damaged by water and vermin. Moreover, they 
are subject to spontaneous combustion, and many vessels have been 
totally destroyed by fire starting in the cargo of bulk grain. 

The boards of insurance underwriters are the only agencies m 
this country that have issued instructions regarding the stowage of 
grain. The regulations of the Board of Underwriters of New York 
and of the Board of Underwriters of New Orleans apply to the 
Atlantic and Gulf coasts. The regulations of the Board of Under- 
writers of San Francisco have been superseded by the instructions of 
the San Francisco office of the United States Shipping Board. All 
of these regulations prescribe the erection of shifting boards to pre- 
vent shifting of the grain, the construction of feeders in the between- 
decks or hatchway to feed grain into the hold as the cargo there settles 
on the voyage, and other matters of similar character. 

Perhaps the best known regulations are those of the Great Britain 
Board of Trade. Its "Memorandum Relating to Grain Cargoes" 
is procurable at Wyman & Sons, London, for one shilling, and its 
additional memoranda on the same subject may be followed in the 
columns of Lloyd's List, which is published daily in London. 

Live Stock.— Regulation of the carriage of live stock from the 
United States is delegated to the Secretary of Agriculture, and the 
Bureau of Animal Industry, of the Department of Agriculture, 
issued in 1919 a little pamphlet on "Regulations Governing the In- 
spection. Humane Handling, and Safe Transport of Export Ai. - 
mals." This describes in detail the accommodations that must be 
provided for animals and the methods of handling them, and it 



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208 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

should be in the hands of every one who is interested in this phase of 
the stowage question. Other countries that are important in the 
export trade in live stock have also issued regulations, with which 
the master of a vessel engaged in that trade must become familiar. 

Dangerous Goods.— One of the great dangers of ocean trans- 
port is from cargo that is capable of destroying the vessel, damaging 
other cargo, or endangering the health or lives of the crew. The 
kinds of goods that may do these things are indicated on page 221. 
In efforts to minimize the danger from such cargo various bodies 
have published information and instructions concerning them and 
their proper' stowage. 

The first set of regulations demanding consideration is that 
found in the laws of the United States. These laws may be divided 
into seven parts on the basis of their application. The first part 
consists of Section 8 of Passenger Act of 1882, which prohibits the 
carriage on vessels carrying steerage passengers of any nitroglycerm, 
dynamite, or any other explosive article or compound, or any vitriol 
(sulphuric acid) or like acids, or gunpowder, except for the ship's use, 
or any other articles which may endanger the health or lives of the 
passengers or the safety of the vessel. 

The second part applies to steam vessels carrying passengers 
and consists of Sections 4422, 4424, 4472, and 4473 of the Revised 
Statutes. It prohibits the carriage on steamers carrying passengers 
of loose hay, loose cotton, loose hemp, camphene, nitroglycerm, 
naphtha, benzine, benzol, coal oil, crude or refined petroleum, or other 
like explosive burning fluid, or like dangerous articles. It also speci- 
fies that baled cotton or hemp shall be carried on such vessels only 
when packed as prescribed by the board of supervising inspectors ; 
that gunpowder shall be carried only under special license; that 
acids must be carried on the decks or the guards thereof; that refined 
petroleum, which will not ignite at a temperature less than 110° F., 
may be carried under regulations on such steamers upon routes where 
there is no other practical mode of transporting it, and that turpen- 
tine and matches may be carried if packed in certain ways. 

The third part of the law consists of Section 232 of the Act of 
March 4, 1909, and applies to all common carriers carrying passen- 
gers. It prohibits, except under certain conditions, the transportation 
of dynamite, gunpowder, or other explosives on such vessels. 

The fourth part is made up of Section 4278, Revised Statutes, 



LAWS GOVERNING STOWAGE 



209 



.. 



and is applicable to .// vessels carrying passengers. It prohibus 
the transportation on all such vessels of nitroglycenn, n.troleum. 
nitrated oil, or powder or fiber mixed or saturated wUh sarn^ 

The fifth part applies, with one or two exceptions, to all steam 
vessels carrying either passengers or freight. Section 4474. Rev.sed 
S tutes stites'the conditions under which oil may be used as ue . 
L Sections 4475 and 4476 prescribe that gunpowder mtroglyc- 
erin, camphene, naphtha, benzine, benzol, coal o.l, crude or refined 
petroleum' acids, oil or spirits of turpentine, f nct.on matches and 
all other articles of like character shall be securely packed and pu 
„p separately from each other and from =''.''*",""'='"' ^"^^^ 
the container of such an article must be distmctly marked on the 
outside with the name or description of the art.cle therem 

The sixth part consists of Sections 234, 235- and 236 of the Act 
of March 4. '909. and applies to all common carriers It Prohib.ts 
the transport of liquid nitroglycerin, fulminate m bulk m dry condi- 
tion, or other like explosive; and prescribes that all packages con- 
taining explosives or like dangerous articles shall be plamly marked 

on the outside. ^ „ 

The seventh part applies to all vessels and is made up of Sec 
tions 4279 and 4288, Revised Statutes. It prescribes how nitro- 
glycerin, nitroleum, and nitrated oil and powders, fibers mixed or 
saturated with same, must be packed and maxked when put up or 
shipment, and that written notice must be given by the shipper to Ae 
ship's officer of the shipment of oil of vitriol, unslaked lime, m- 
flammrble matches, or gunpowder. . ■ 1 . .,,„« 

It will be readily apparent that the confusion of these laws must 
• be reflected in their administration. The power of prohibiting the 
transportation of articles and of prescribing the mode of packmg 
and stowing commodities is given to the Supervising Inspector Gen- 
eral of the Steamboat Inspection Service. He and his supervising 
inspectors have performed admirable service in view of the faulty 
laws with which they have had to work. Whenever there is any 
question about the dangerous character of an art.cle a sample is 
taken by the inspector and sent to Washington, where it is examined 
by the Bureau of Standards. This Bureau makes recommendations 
to the Supervising Inspector General, who thereupon publishes a 
ruling on the article. There are hundreds of such rulings that have 
been published in the circulars, the monthly bulletins, or the corre- 



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j,o WHARF MANAGEMENT 

spondence of the Steamboat Inspection Service. Almost all of the 
Tngs refer only to the transportation of dangerous art.cles by 
passenger steamers, and it is perhaps true that the jur.sd.ct.on o he 
Steamboat Inspection- Service does not extend to the transportat.on 
of goods by freight vessels or sailing vessels carrymg passengers. A 
number of articles are prohibited altogether from carnage by pas- 
senger steamers, and the methods of packing -^^^--S ^"/^ 
others are outlined. These rulings are gathered together m Stowage 
of Ship Cargoes," sold by the Superintendent of Documents, Wash- 

^"Tu'stt ti'e s'mboat Inspection Service is given authority in the 
matter of transportation of goods by vessel, the Interstate Commerce 
Commission is given authority over the transportation "f g°°ds by 
land vehicles. Its regulations are available to all m '" P^bl-t-ons, 
"Regulations for the Transportation of Explosives and Other Dan- 
gerous Articles by Freight and Express, and Specifications for Ship- 
ping Containers" (about 250 pages) and "Supplement No. i to 
same, procurable from the Superintendent of Documents, Washmg- 
o„, ;r from the Bureau of Explosives, New York C.ty. Th.s mfor- 
madon is of great value to steamship officials because the methods 
of packing and marking prescribed for railway shipment are extended 
automatically to shipment by sea. and because the regulations have 
been applied to the coastwise lines. Division is made between 
explosives and other dangerous articles, and for each class and 
each article the methods of packing and marking are prescnbea. 
There are also detailed specifications for the manufacture of con- 
tainers for shipping various dangerous articles. . 

The coastwise lines are governed by the regulations of the Inter- 
state Commerce Commission and of the Steamboat Inspection Service, 
and the manner in which they observe these rules is shown m the 
publications of the Bureau of Explosives, 3° Vesey Street New 
York, especially in B. E. Pamphlet No. J-B. "Regulations for the 
Transportation of Explosives and Dangerous Articles Other than 
Explosives" (.919)- The pamphlet consists largely of a tab e 
which shows the way in which the different coastwise lines handle 
various dangerous articles. It gives about the same mformation that 
is found in the lists of dangerous cargoes that are privately kept by 
many steamship companies. Such a list should be ma'ntamed by 
every company. This is conveniently done by a card file, in which 



LAWS GOVERNING STOWAGE 



211 



are shown the names, dangerous characteristics and methods of 
stowage of the different commodities. 

Another source of information which should be in the hands of 
every one interested in the loading of explosives is in the publications 
of the Treasury Department on anchorage grounds. The Secretary 
of War establishes anchorage grounds at different ports, especially 
anchorage grounds for the loading of explosives, and prescribes 
regulations relating thereto. These regulations are enforced by the 
Secretary of the Treasury through the Port Captains of the Coast 
Guard at New York. Philadelphia, Norfolk, and along the St. Mary's 
River ; at other ports the regulations are enforced by the Chief of 
Engineers of the War Department. The rules laid down for the 
loading of explosives at New York. Philadelphia, or Norfolk may 
be had by applying to the Port Captain or to the U. S. Coast Guard. 

Washington. 

The insurance underwriters have a great deal of information on 
dangerous cargo, only some of which is published. Boards of under- 
writers have lists of dangerous articles which are open to the inspec- 
tion of members, but are not published, largely because they are sub- 
ject to constant change. On the other hand, some of the boards have 
publicly issued advices on the loading and stowing of certain com- 
modities. The Board of Underwriters of New York has printed in- 
structions on the loading of calcium carbide, iron and coal, explosives, 
refined oils, and deck cargoes of coal. The National Board of 
Marine Underwriters has published a set of rules governing the 
loading of turpentine, rosin, cottonseed oil, and petroleum oil or its 
products in barrels from Gulf and Southern Atlantic ports. It is 
rather unfortunate that these boards are not more active in the dis- 
tribution of information of this kind. 

The Board of Trade in Great Britain has published a large 
amount of valuable information concerning dangerous cargoes, and 
its advice is more generally followed in the marine world than that 
of any other body. Its "Memorandum Relating to the Carriage of 
Dangerous Goods (Other than Explosives) in Ships" (1915) may 
be obtained from Wyman & Sons, London, for threepence. 

The suggestion has been made that all of these regulations on 
dangerous articles should be coordinated and administered by some 
national or international body. It is doubtful whether an interna- 
tional tribunal is practical at present, but it would be a comparatively 



212 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



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! 



simple matter to form a national clearing house of information 
and regulation by simply broadening the scope of the work of the 
Steamboat Inspection Service. It seems ridiculous that a steamer 
loading explosives is governed by regulations laid down by the Sec- 
retary of War and enforced by the Secretary of the Treasury, and 
that infractions of the regulations are punished by the Department 
of Commerce. Centralization of authority must be had, and this 
centralized authority must be given complete power. The old 
laws which permit the unrestricted shipment of alcohol and 
prohibit the shipment of camphene and petroleum on steamers 
carrying passengers should be repealed, and the Supervising 
Inspector General should be given the power of framing a com- 
plete set of regulations and of administering these regulations as he 
sees fit. Any law must be elastic to allow for the wide differences in 
ships, commodities, routes, etc., and an administrative body, such as 
the Steamboat Inspection Service, unhampered by old laws, could 
take xhese differences into consideration. This one body, with proper 
authority and increased personnel, could perform invaluable 
service in securing greater safety at sea and in relieving the 
American merchant marine of the needless restrictions now imposed 
upon it. 



REFERENCES 

Aeby, Julius, Dangerous Goods. Privately published, Antwerp, 1910. 
Barr, Harry K., Stowage and Dangerous Cargo. Wycie & Co., New 

York, 1918. 
Board of Underwriters of New Orleans (Marine). "Rules for Load- 
ing Grain." New Orleans, 1913. 
Board of Underwriters of New York (Marine): 
"Regulations for the Loading of Calcium Carbide." New York, 1913. 
"Rules for Loading Grain." New York, 191 7. 
"Rules for Loading Vessels with Iron and/or Coal." New York, 

1898. 
"Regulations for the Stowage of High and Low Explosives." New 

York, 1916. 

"Regulations regarding the Loading of Gasoline, Naphtha and Ben- 
zine." New York, 1910. 

"Rules and Regulations Regarding the Carrying of Coals on Deck 
for Use as Bunker Coal, from Ports North of Hatteras to Ports 
South of that Latitude." New York, 1900. 



LAWS GOVERNING STOWAGE 



213 



Bureau of Explosives: 

"General Information Respecting Explosives and Other Dangerous 

Articles." B. E. Pamphlet No. 7. 30 Vesey St., New York, 1914- 

"Regulations for the Transportation of Explosives and Dangerous 

Articles other than Explosives." B. E. Pamphlet No. 5-B. 30 

Vesey Street, New York, 1919. 

Carver, Thos. G., A Treatise of the Law Relating to the Carriage 
of Goods by Sea. 6th Edition by James S. Henderson. Stevens 
& Sons, London, 191 8. 

Great Britain Board of Trade: 

"List of Principal Acts of Parliament, Regulations, Orders, Instruc- 
tions and Notices Relating to Merchant Shipping Which Are Now in 
Force." London, August, 191 7. 
"Memorandum Relating to the Carriage of Dangerous Goods and 

Explosives in Ships." London, 1907. 
"Memorandum Relating to the Carriage of Dangerous Goods (Other 

than Explosives) in Ships." London, I9i5« 
"Memorandum Relating to Grain Cargoes." Darling & Son, Lon- 
don, 1919. 
"Report of Committee on Load Lines of Merchant Ships and Car- 
riage of Deck Cargoes of Wood Goods." London, 191 6. 

National Board of Marine Underwriters: "Rules Governing the Load- 
ing of Turpentine, Rosin, Cottonseed Oil, and Petroleum Oil or Its 
Products in Barrels from Gulf and Southern Atlantic Ports." New 
York, 1907. 

Port Warden of the Harbor of Montreal. "Revised Rules and By- 
Laws." Montreal. 

Samuels, Wm. S. (Marine Surveyor and Appraiser), "Rules for Load- 
ing Case Oil." Philadelphia, 191 1. 

Taylor, T. R., Stowage of Ship Cargoes. Government Printing Office, 
1920. 

U. S. Bureau of Navigation: "Navigation Laws of the United States." 
Government Printing Office, 192 1. 

U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Animal Industry: "Regu- 
lations Governing the Inspection, Humane Handling, and Safe 
Transport of Export Animals." Washington, 1919. 

U. S. Interstate Commerce Commission: "Regulations for the Trans- 
portation of Explosives and Other Dangerous Articles by Freight 
and Express and Specifications for Shipping Containers." Also 
Supplement No. i to same. Government Printing Office, 191 8 

and 1919. 
U. S. Treasury Department: 

"Anchorage Grounds for the Delaware River between Philadelphia 
and Newcastle and Rules and Regulations Relating Thereto." 
Government Printing Office, August, 19 18. 
"Anchorage Grounds for the Port of New York and Rules and Regu- 
lations Relating Thereto." Government Printing Office, February, 
1919. 



214 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



"Rules for the St. Mary's River." Government Printing Office, 

February, IQIQ- , ^ , • u * 

"Rules and Regulations Governing Anchorage Grounds in Hampton 
Roads and the Harbors of Norfolk and Newport News." Govern- 
ment Printing Office, June, 1918. . c r- • 
U. S. Shipping Board, Emergency Fleet Corporation, San trancisco 
Branch: "Loading Instructions" (For grain.) San Francisco, 

Von Schwartz, Dr., Fire and Explosion Risks, translated by Charles 
T. C. Salter. Charles Griffin & Co., London, 1904. 



CHAPTER Xni 

STOWAGE FOR SECURITY * 

Stowage must be carefully done if danger and damage are to be 
eliminated. Many vessels are lost by improper stowage ^ and thou- 
sands of dollars' worth of claims for damage to cargo are annually 
paid by steamship operators. This phase of the stowage question is 
of such human and financial interest that it has been rather exten- 
sively discussed and there are several good books on the subject (see 
references at end of chapter). It will only be necessary, therefore, 
to state the general principles involved. 



Damage to Ship or Crew 

Stowage will result in danger of loss of the vessel if (a) the center 
of gravity of the cargo is not put in the proper place, (b) the work 
is so carelessly done that the cargo will shift, and/cj proper safe- 
guards are not thrown about dangerous cargo. 

Improper Position of the Center of Gravity.— The proper 
point for the center of gravity varies with the vessel and the cargo. 
No general rule can be laid down ; in each case the shipowner or 
master must follow his own knowledge and judgment. However, 
it is possible to point out some ways in which the master may go 

wrong. 

If the center of gravity of the cargo is too high, the vessel will 
be liable to capsize. The beam and the freeboard help to determine 
the stability of the vessel, but the position of the center of gravity 

* By Thomas R. Taylor. .u . *u ti,u:«k 

•News dispatches to-day (January 19, 1920) state that the British 
steamer Yarmouth (725 tons) is sinking off the New Jersey coast, vvith the 
forward ballast tank leaking into the engme room. It left New York on 
January 17, with a heavy list to starboard, owing to the haste with which 
longshoremen loaded the cargo of $2,000,000 worth of liquors in an effort to 
eet it out of the country before the law forbidding transportation of liquor 
went into effect. There is little doubt but that careless stowage was re- 
sponsible for the loss. 

215 



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WHARF MANAGEMENT 



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is the most important factor. If the center of gravity is low there 
will be a strong force tending to return the ship to a vertical position 
after it has been inclined by wave action. If it is high, the force will 
be weaker; and if it is too high there will be no return movement 
and the vessel will roll over. Figure 84 shows stability curves for 
a vessel under three conditions of load. The length of the "righting 
arm" expresses the power of the ship to right itself. It will be noted 




W Jo* no* ^o» 

Fig. 84. 

that this vessel will be stable at all angles to which it probably will 
be inclined. If, however, the vessel in its "coal burned" condition 
were thrown to an angle of about 75 degrees there would be no 
righting arm, and capsizing would immediately take place. Such 
curves are supplied to the shipowner by the architect or builder, and 
should be placed in the possession of the master. This officer should 
be able to interpret the curves and to construct new ones for each 
different load condition. 

If the center of gravity is very low the righting force will be 
so great that the vessel will be brought up with a jerk, carried 
beyond the vertical position, and will then oscillate or "roll" until 
equilibrium is established. There is absolutely no danger of capsiz- 
ing, but there is danger that the excessive rolling will cause sea- 
sickness of passengers and crew, chafing and shifting of cargo, strain 
of the vessel, and perhaps the breakage of parts and the tearing out 
of the masts. A ship in that condition is said to be "stiff," as con- 
trasted to "crank," which is the term used to express an unstable con- 
dition. "Stiffness" is to be avoided on passenger steamers and sail- 
ing vessels especially. The great passenger liners are so constructed 
that it is almost impossible to make them "stiff," and with such 
vessels the master must use especial precaution to avoid raising the 
center of gravity to a danger point. The master of the smaller 









STOWAGE FOR SECURITY 



217 



vessel should place a part of the "dead-weight," or heavy, cargo high 
in the hold or in the between-decks in order to raise the center of 
gravity. In loading steel or iron, for example, about one-third of the 
total weight should be placed between decks. 

Rolling may also be reduced somewhat by the movement of 
weight into the wings, but this method is in most cases more difficult 
of application than the first. 

In the future, the master will probably have but little cause to 
worry over the matter of excessive rolling, because it seems quite 
probable that there will be a wide adoption of the "gyro-stabilizer," 
which keeps the vessel on an even keel. 

If the center of gravity is to one side of the longitudinal axis of 
flotation, the vessel will be given a "list." Some vessels have a 
list when empty because of faulty construction ; many more are given 
a list by loading more weight on one side of the keel than on the other. 
A small list is not dangerous, although it results in retardation 01 
speed. In fact, some vessels, having more bunker space on one side, 
are started off with a list purposely, with the understanding that the 
stokers will use the coal out of the low side first and thus bring it 
to an even keel quickly. A heavy list, however, is very dangerous, 
for it sets up serious strains that may cause leakage, and it alters 
stability so greatly that the vessel may capsize at small angles of 
inclination. It is not difficult to avoid list at the start of the voyage. 
The cargo spaces on opposite sides of the keel are almost equal, and 
if goods having approximately the same stowage factor are loaded 
on each side there is little danger. Any list that does develop during 
loading is easily discovered and should be corrected at once. A list 
may develop at sea owing to use of fuel or stores, shifting of cargo 
or leakage. This is also easily detected, but is not so readily recti- 
fied. It may be necessary to send the crew into the hold to move the 
cargo or even to throw some of it overboard. Some step should be 
taken in each case where the list is over 4 degrees. 

The longitudinal position of the center of gravity is also of 
great importance. If it is too far forward the bow will be sub- 
merged so deeply that it will not ride the waves easily, while the 
stern will perhaps be elevated to such a point that the propeller and 
rudder will not perform properly. At the bow and stern of each 
vessel there are marks to show the "draft" or the depth to which the 
hull is sunk in the water. "Trim" is the difference between the fore 



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218 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

and the aft drafts, and a vessel is said to be "in trim" when the two 
drafts are the same. A vessel sails most efficiently when it is in trim 
or when it has a slight "drag," that is, when the stern is a little 
lower than the bow. The raised quarter-deck vessel was designed to 
provide a greater cargo capacity aft than forward, in order that a 
"drag" might easily be obtained. 

While in port the trim can be gauged by reading the drafts, and 
any necessary correction should be made at once to prevent damage 
by strain. On the voyage, trim may be altered by use of fuel and 
provisions, by shifting of cargo, or through some other cause, and it 
is sometimes difficult to tell what the alteration is. For this reason, 
vessels should be fitted with "pneumercators" or some other instru- 
ment that will permit the master to read the trim at any time. 

The ship may be in trim and yet be liable to serious damage 
because of the improper longitudinal distribution of the load. If all 
the weight is placed at the two ends and none in the center, the 
vessel will "hog" or take a permanent shape in which its ends are 
lower than its midship section. If all the weight is concentrated 
amidships, "buckling" may result, and the vessel will become 
"sway-backed." Either result is to be avoided because of the unde- 
sirable effect on the sailing efficiency, strength, and beauty of the 
vessel. Yet it is not uncommon to see ships that have been "hogged" 
or "buckled." In many cases these results have followed from 
strains set up during the loading process. Because of the longitu- 
dinal division of the cargo space by bulkheads into holds, it is easy 
to acquire the erroneous idea that each hold is a unit in itself, and 
that the loading of one hold while others are empty can have no 
effect on the ship as a whole. Many vessels, especially those loading 
bulk dead-weight, are seriously strained and deformed by stowage of 
this kind. It must always be remembered that the weight must be 
uniformly distributed in the holds at all times. 

One of the most puzzling problems is that of maintaining the 
center of gravity at the proper place when the vessel is loading and 
discharging cargo at several ports. It is almost impossible to dis- 
tribute cargo for the different ports in such a way that all of it can be 
easily removed and that the vessel is not out of trim or instable on 
at least one of the "legs" of its voyage. The best judgment of the 
stevedore and master is required to plan a stowage that will approach 
the ideal. In some cases it will be necessary to rearrange the stowage 






STOWAGE FOR SECURITY 



219 



after discharge at one port. This, however, is a costly operation and 
should be followed only as a last resort. Figure 83, showing the 
stowage plan of a vessel discharging at three ports, illustrates some 
of the principles involved. 

Shifting of Cargo.— Besides the damage caused to its constitu- 
ent units, shifting of cargo may result in strain and breakage of 
parts and in a new and dangerous position of the center of gravity 
of the cargo. If the cargo moves downward, decks, stanchions, 
tank tops, and shell are in danger, and the new position of the weights 
may cause excessive rolling. If the cargo moves forward or aft, the 
bulkheads may be broken and the vessel will be put out of trim. If 
the cargo moves athwartship, the sides may be crushed and, in almost 
any event, a list will be developed. Perhaps the most common type 
of shifting on a large scale is transverse or athwartship shifting, 
caused by rolling of the vessel from side to side. The resultant list 
may be so "heavy" that the vessel becomes instable and may capsize. 
Losses at sea due to shifting have been so excessive ^ that many 
especial precautionary measures have been adopted. This is best 
illustrated in the grain-carrying trade. No economical way of com- 
pressing grain into the hold is known. During the voyage the un- 
compressed grain settles, and a hold that was completely full at the 
loading port becomes partially empty. This empty space permits 
the grain to shift, and grain movements begin at a relatively low 
angle of inclination. To avoid danger from this source, two pre- 
cautions are taken : In the first place, the holds are subdivided by the 
erection of "shifting boards" in order to confine the shift to a small 
amount of grain and to a small area. These "shifting boards" are 
of different construction and their number varies with the size of the 
hold. A common construction on small cargo steamers is a 2 or 
3 inch plank partition placed fore-and-aft over the keelson, and 
braced with heavy timbers set against the beams in the wings. The 
second precaution taken is designed to keep the holds full of grain at 
all times. This is accomplished by stowing some of the bulk graii^ 
above the hold in such a way that it will feed into the hold as the 
grain there settles. In many cases special receptacles or "feeders," 



•The British Load-Line Committee reported in 1916 that definite causei 
of loss were discoverable in 57 of the 92 losses of vessels since the revision 
of the Tables of Freeboard, and that of the 57 losses, iz were caused b> 
shitting ot cargo. 



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WHARF MANAGEMENT 



STOWAGE FOR SECURITY 



221 



are constructed for this purpose, and these are placed either in the 
hatch or over the wings in the between decks, or in both places. The 
Board of Trade of Great Britain, the boards of insurance under- 
writers in the United States, and other bodies in other countries have 
issued regulations prescribing exactly how the shifting boards and 
feeders are to be constructed (see Chapter XII). If neither shifting 
boards nor feeders are used, a certain percentage of the grain must 
be bagged, according to these regulations. 

Subdivision of the cargo space is necessary if fluids are to be 
carried safely. "For the transportation of petroleum and some- 
times other oils in bulk, special *tank steamers' have been con- 
structed. The portions of the vessel used for the stowage of the oil 
are subdivided into small tanks by a strong longitudinal bulkhead 
extending the entire length of the ship above the center line of the 
vessel and rising to the uppermost deck, and by transverse bulkheads 
spaced about 24 feet apart. When these tanks are filled with oil 
the fore-and-aft and side-to-side movement of the oil caused by the 
pitching and rolling of the vessel at sea is reduced to a minimum." * 
In some cases the principle of the* shifting board is adapted to the 
stowage of other bulk cargo and of general cargo, but this is rare. 
General cargo, if stowed at all compactly, is not liable to shift seri- 
ously except in a few special cases. The breaking of barrels, due to 
pressure above, may permit the sudden movement of a large number 
of barrels with disastrous effect to the cargo and vessel. This is 
prevented only by careful stowage. If the barrels are tiered to a 
great height planks should be laid over one or more tiers to distribute 
the pressure brought by the tiers above. In several cases, general 
cargo has been known to break through a partition into a space that 
was left vacant for some reason. Such partitions must be strongly 
constructed. 

Various measures are adopted to prevent shifting of dead-weight 
cargo that does not fill the space allotted to it. Railway iron, heavy 
logs, etc., are bound with chains, which are then fastened to parts of 
the vessel. Similar methods can be used for any cargo whose units 
are large. If the units are small, they can be covered by boards, 
tarpaulins or matting, and roped down. Large and heavy pieces 
can be "tombed" down or secured by shores set against the beams. 



* Johnson and Huebner, Principles of Ocean Transportation. D. Apple- 
ton & Co., New York, 1918, 43, 44. 



Dangerous Goods. — Almost any cargo is dangerous to some 
degree, but there are only a few commodities that are so destructive 
as to be ordinarily classed as "dangerous goods." The following 
classification is adopted from that given by Aeby, a Belgian chemist. 

Classification of Dangerous Goods 

I. Inflammable Goods : 

1. Spontaneously inflammable. 

2. Inflammable when heated, without the presence of 

flame. 

3. Inflammable in the presence of flame. 

4. Not ordinarily inflammable, but which under cer- 

tain conditions may give off combustible or ex- 
plosive gas. 

5. Producing inflammable dust. 

6. Generating heat when impregnating organic prod- 

ucts. 

7. Taking fire by sparks. 
II. Explosive Goods: 

1. Spontaneously explosive. 

2. Explosive by fire, friction, shocks, blows. 

3. Explosive when mixed with other bodies. 

4. Explosive by decomposition and discoloring. 
III. Corrosive and Discoloring Goods: 

1. Corrosive solids (little danger unless moistened). 

2. Corrosive liquids. 

3. Producing corrosive or discoloring vapors. 
IV. Evil Smelling and Asphyxiating Goods : 

1. Having a troublesome smell. 

2. Producing asphyxiating or anesthetic vapors. 
V. Poisonous Goods: 

1. Poisonous solids and liquids. 

2. Producing poisonous gases. 
VI. Miscellaneous Dangerous Goods: 

1. Tainting. 

2. Hydroscopic, or water attracting. 

3. Deliquescent, or giving off moisture. 

4. Having a low freezing or melting point. 

5. Acting to feed flames. 

6. Dusty. 



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222 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

Anv of these classes of goods may cause damage to the vessel, 
endanger the health or life of members of the crew or passengers, or 
destroy other cargo. The inflammable and explosive goods are of the 
greatest danger to the vessel itself. Many marine losses are due to 
fire starting in the cargo. Special precaution must be used m 
handling goods that are spontaneously inflammable or explosive, and 
this class includes almost all animal and vegetable p/oducts m bulk, 
as well as many other organic compounds. Coal, gram, fibers, 
manures, lampblack, clothing, and varnishes are some of the more 
common commercial products liable to spontaneous combustion. 1 he 
proper prevention is in most cases sufficient ventilation for com- 
bustion is in almost all cases preceded by heating and the removal 
of the heat will probably keep the product at a temperature be ow 
the combustion point. The ship operator should become familiar 
with the available information on the subject.' 

Although inflammable and explosive cargo is of the greatest 
danger to the vessel in causing total destruction, the other classes 
of dangerous cargo will damage the vessel in many cases. Corrosive 
goods have an especially deleterious effect on metal parts, and have 
been known to cause leakage. Evil smelling and asphyxiating goods 
leave odors in the hold which must be removed, sometimes at great 
expense, before other cargo can be loaded. Poisonous goods "e 
of especial danger to the crew, and there are other goods, which, 
although not poisonous themselves, may produce a condition favor- 
able to the growth and spread of germs of disease The trim and 
stability of the vessel are affected by articles that gain or lose 
weight, by adding or losing water, on the voyage. Dust from coal, 
iron ore, and other products, discolors the timbers and destroys the 
beauty of the fittings in many cases. 

Damage to Cargo 

Damages to cargo may be caused by : 

1. Dangerous goods of the classes described above. 

2. Moisture. 

3. Extremes of temperature. 

4. Chafing and crushing. 



.S„ Von Schwartz, Fire and Explosion Risk,. See also Taylor, 

Stowage of Ship Cargoes. 



STOWAGE FOR SECURITY 



223 



c. Lack of ventilation. 

6. Pilfering. 

■J, Vermin. 

8. Wear and tear in transfer. 

Dangerous Goods.-The kinds of goods that may cause injury 
to other goods are almost innumerable. Inflammable and explo- 
sive articles may destroy the entire cargo and the vessel, or may 
damage a part of the cargo by fire. Corrosive and discoloring 
goods, such as acids and chloride of lime, have serious effects on 
metals, colored cloths, and other commodities with which they 
are in close contact. Odors from fertilizers, vegetable and animal 
products, oils, barks, chemicals, scents, spices, soaps, and many 
other commodities will injure foodstuffs particularly; and the mas- 
ter must learn to stow malodorous goods apart from foodstuffs and 
in a dry and well-ventilated place. Foodstuffs and live cargo are 
also injured by poisonous goods, and these should not be accepted 
for transportation unless they are well packed. Dust damage is far 
more serious than is generally supposed. If it does not actually 
ruin the articles upon which it falls, it at least gives these an un- 
sightly appearance which leads the consignee to file damage claims. 
In the scope of this book it is impossible to make an adequate 
presentation of the way in which damage from dangerous goods may 
be avoided, for the method differs in almost every case. The master 
is guided to a large extent by the laws regulating the carriage of 
such commodities (see Chapter XII), and by his knowledge and ex- 
perience. Stowage of Ship Cargoes should be consulted by any one 
handling a variety of cargoes, and each operator should maintain 
a list of dangerous goods, showing their characteristics and the best 

methods of stowing them. 

Moisture.— Even a slight amount of moisture may cause dis- 
coloring, decay, rust, fermenting, chemical change, or odorization. 
It aids spontaneous combustion, and directly or indirectly damages 
almost every class of goods. Moreover, moisture damage is particu- 
larly difficult to avoid because water in various forms is found at 
almost every point of the voyage. Here again the action of the mas- 
ter and stevedore must be governed by common sense and sound 
judgment. Precautions must be taken first at the time of loading. 
The vessel's holds must be carefully prepared for the cargo. Leaks 



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ft 



224 




STOWAGE FOR SECURITY 



225 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



should be repaired, the steam pipes must be looked over, rivet holes 
filled, decks cleaned, water passageways, scuppers, and limbers 
cleaned, and the pumps must be tried out and repaired if necessary. 
In almost all cases dunnage must be laid on the ceiling to protect 
the cargo from bilge water and leakage from the tank tops. If the 
goods to be stowed are especially susceptible of damage other pre- 
cautions must be taken. Thus, a hold properly prepared for flour 
should have the beams and pillars muffled with canvas or matting to 
decrease the probability of condensation of moisture on these metal 
parts and the falling of the drops upon the cargo. 

After the hold is made as dry and as water-tight as possible, 
loading may begin, unless the weather is stormy. Goods in bales and 
sacks, machinery, stationery, steel and iron, and other commodities 
that may be damaged by rain should not be transferred during wet 
weather. Some classes of goods should not be taken out of the 
transit shed if there is a heavy fog. These principles, of course, 
apply also to discharge. 

All wet goods should be stowed underneath or apart from 
dry goods. Wet goods include liquids, some solids, such as butter 
that may become liquid, and any product that contains a relatively 
large amount of moisture. They should be stowed in holds to them- 
selves or should be separated from the dry goods by dunnage. 

After the cargo is stowed the hatches should be battened down 
tightly and covered with tarpaulin, unless ventilation is necessary. 
Good circulation of dry air through the cargo will help to prevent 
"sweating" and the accumulation of moisture. "Sweating" is caused 
by high temperature in the hold, and it may damage many kinds of 
commodities. During the voyage no water must be allowed to leak 
through the hatches or decks, and the bilge water must be removed by 
pumping. If possible, the cargo should be inspected to see that 
moisture is not entering and that any present is being removed by 
the pumps. 

Extremes of Temperature. — There is very little danger from 
excessive cold on the voyage, for shipments that will carry safely by 
land are not liable to freeze at sea. Ocean temperatures and espe- 
cially hold temperatures are relatively high, and for this reason 
many coastwise shipments are routed by water instead of railroad 
during the winter months. Occasionally very low temperatures are 
encountered at sea and damage may be done to alcohol solutions, 



liquors, or other articles containing a high percentage of water. The 
only precaution that can be taken against such loss .s to stow the 
goods in the warmest part of the hold, preferably near the boiler 

rooms. , 1. „^ 

The danger from high temperatures is much greater because 

tropical voyages are more frequent than voyages in h.gh latmides 
and because the heat from the fires and from steam.ng cargo adds to 
the air temperature. High temperature may cause ullage of casks; 
melting of tallow, wax, and similar articles; spontaneous combus- 
tion; decay of many vegetable and animal products; chem.cal 
changes, and increased fire hazards, especially if the articles earned 
give off inflammable or explosive gases. Rum is almost the only 
commoditv that is improved by heat, while there are many that are 
totally destroyed by excessive temperature. There are a number of 
precautions that may be adopted. The first is to refuse to accept 
for transportation anything which may be damaged by temperature, 
that can be reasonably expected, unless it can be carried m ref rigerat- 
ing space. The second precaution is to stow goods that may be dam- 
aged by heat in the coolest parts of the vessel— away from the boiler 
room, engines and steam pipes, near the bow, and in well-ventilated 
places, such as the between-decks and the hatchways. The third 
precaution is to provide ventilation throughout the cargo, and the 
fourth is to keep dry those goods that may decay, ferment, or 
heat spontaneously. Heat alone may not cause spontaneous heating 
of vegetable or animal products, but a combination of heat and 
moisture probably will. This spontaneous heating will damage the 
goods so heated and perhaps other products in the vicinity. 

Chafing and Crushing.-Chafing and crushing, if excessive, 
will damage almost every commodity. Chafe injures fruits, cloths, 
glassware, machinery, and rope particularly. Crushing may result in 
the loss of liquids or of small articles from their containers, and will 
expose other commodities to the weather, moisture, dirt and theft. 
Both chafing and crushing are caused largely by movements of the 
cargo; therefore they cannot be eliminated altogether if rough 
weather is encountered, but they can be reduced to a minimum by 
careful stowage. The stowage must be compact. Units of cargo 
must be placed as closely as possible and any "broken stowage- 
should be filled with smaller units or with dunnage. If it is impos- 
sible to fill in all the interstices the units should be wedged, blocked. 



II 



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WHARF MANAGEMENT 



or tombed so as to prevent their movement. In some cases it is 
advisable to nail or otherwise fasten together a number of units. In 
other cases, especially where there is a deep hold, there should be 
some divisions made between the different parts of the cargo, the 
divisions being complete enough to keep the cargo of one section 
from moving into any space left vacant in another section. This 
may be done by laying down a floor of boards. Movements on a 
large scale can also be prevented by constructing additional bulk- 
heads or other partitions, as is done in the case of grain. The bedding 
of locomotives in bales of hay, described on page 199, is a good 
illustration of the methods employed. 

A great deal of attention must be given to choosing the safest 
place for stowage of goods particularly susceptible to damage by 
crushing or chafing. The bow is to be avoided because the pitching is 
felt more there. The lower parts of the hold must also be avoided, 
for the great weight of the upper tiers will cause crushing. Fragile 
cases, barrels, etc., should not be stowed against the sharp edges of 
beams, stanchions, and other parts of the ship. 

One of the most important precautions is to refuse to stow any 
goods that are not properly packed. Transportation should be re- 
fused altogether, or the fragile packages should be repaired at the 
pier. 

Lack of Ventilation. — Lack of ventilation causes the accumula- 
tion of moisture and heat and the strengthening of odors as pointed 
out in previous paragraphs. A capable officer should be placed in 
charge of ventilation of cargo, fuel, and crew quarters during the 
voyage. Hatches should be kept open in clear weather if the 
cargo gives off obnoxious odors or is liable to spontaneous combus- 
tion. The ventilators should be so adjusted in height and direction 
that a good circulation of air is provided at all times. 

Pilfering. — Upon delivery many consignments are discovered, to 
be short, and the shipowner may have to pay the damage claim. 
The fact that he has pilferage insurance should not prevent him from 
doing everything possible to stop thievery. Pilfering begins at the 
pier and perhaps most of it occurs there ; therefore, the first essential 
is a good watching system on the pier. It is not enough to station 
a kind old loafer at the entrance. There should be a check on each in- 
dividual who enters the pier and upon his actions while he is there. 
Any one who has visited piers in this country knows how easy it is to 



STOWAGE FOR SECURITY 2^7 

steal things if one has the desire. In many foreign countries the 
da"U of pilferage is even greater because the people are poorer. 
The longshoremen must be carefully watched by the.r foremen. 
It is easy to open a package that has been weakened by rough han- 
d ing or that was not securely packed in the first place, and to shp 
in^ pocket a bar of soap, a piece of jewelry, a tool, or some other 
smaU and desirable article. The best preventive .s to keep the men 
busy at all times and to impress on the foremen the necessity of bemg 
alert. In foreign countries, one of the ship's officers should be on 

"^"'pilfering by the crew is relatively unimportant, but this also 
should be guarded against. Valuable goods should be stowed m a 
locker or strong room, the key to which is held by an »««- ^'^^^ 
and other attractive products must be stowed m a place difficult of 
access. Frequent inspections should be made of the crew s quarters 
and of the cargo that can be reached. 

Vermin.-There is always some damage from vermm durmg 
the course of the voyage. Conditions on shipboard favor vermm. 
because of the heat and moisture in the hold and the dirt that .t .s 
impossible to eradicate altogether. Even if the vessel .s thoroughly 
cleaned and disinfected after the discharge of cargo, the new cargo 
may introduce another crop of vermin. The master therefore encouri- 
ters several perplexing problems. He must, .f possible, kill all 
vermin before cargo is loaded; he must not accept mfested cargo or 
allow vermin to enter in any other way; and he must prevent the 
increase in number and the spread of vermin during the voyage. If. 
in spite of these precautions, there is an increase, he must endeavor 
to confine their ravages to a small part of the cargo. 

The actual methods to be used on rats can be given to illustrate 
the principles involved. Rats are the --^ /^f;""^ /"""" 
encountered in the shipping world. All ships should be disinfected 
with sulphur dioxide or cyanide gas. preferably the latter periodi- 
cally. Other rats should be denied access by fending the ship from 
the wharf by ffcating fenders, by placing rat funnels on all hues to 
the shore, by raising the gangplank at night, and by inspecting al 
cargo before it is placed on board. The ravages of any rats that 
remain or are admitted can be reduced somewhat by placing stores 
and valuable cargo in rat-proof compartments or by surrounding 



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WHARF MANAGEMENT 



STOWAGE FOR SECURITY 



229 




II 



III 



;^ « 



I 



them with cargo that is obnoxious to rats ; by keeping a cat or rat 
terrier ; by using poison or traps, and by providing the rats with food 
and water so that they will not attack the cargo. In destroying all 
sorts of vermin, the best measures are those that are preventive. 
Cleanliness is the first prerequisite. Careful inspections will disclose 
the appearance of vermin, and measures should be taken at once to 
stamp it out. 

Wear and Tear in Transfer.— The damage that may be done 
to cargo by tearing of hooks, cutting and crushing of the sling, smash- 
ing of the carelessly handled draft, transfer in wet weather, rough 
treatment on the pier and in the hold, and by other causes have 
been sufficiently discussed in the chapters on transfer. The ship- 
owner is, of course, liable to damage incurred in transfer and should 
exercise every precaution to avoid it. There is little excuse for dam- 
age of this sort at modern ports, but some is unavoidable at ports 
lacking proper harbor facilities. 



REFERENCES 

Aeby, Julius, Dangerous Goods. Privately published, Antwerp, 1910. 
Carver, Thos. G., A Treatise of the Law Relating to the Carriage of 

Goods by Sea. (6th ed. by James S. Henderson.) Stevens & 

Sons, Ltd., London, 1918. 
Great Britain Board of Trade: "Report of Committee on Load Lines 

of Merchant Ships and Carriage of Deck Cargoes of Wood Goods." 

London, 191 6. 
HiLLCOAT, Chas. H., Notes on the Stowage of Ships. Imray, Lowrie, 

Norie & Wilson, London, 1918. 
Hughes, Chas. H., HandBook of Ship Calculations, Construction, and 

Operation. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 191 8. 
Institute of Naval Architects: "Transactions." 
International Engineering Congress: "Transactions." 
Johnson, E. R., and Huebner, G. G., Principles, of Ocean Trans- 
portation. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1918. 
Murphy, John McL., and Jeffers, W. N., Nautical Routine and 

Stowage. Henry Spear, New York, 1849. 
Stevens, Robt. W., On the Stowage of Ships and Their Cargoes. 

Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1894. 

Taylor, Thos. R., Stowage of Ship Cargoes. Government Printing 
Office, 1920. 

U. S. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce: "Packing for Ex- 
port." Miscellaneous Series No. 5. Government Printing Office, 
1919. 



U S. Standardization Branch, Purchase, Storage and Traffic Division, 

General Staff, U. S. Army: 
Manual for Packing Army Supplies. M^""™. „ . ^ „ Preel 
Public Health Reports, "Rodent Destruction on Ships, by K. H. l^reel 

and F. Simpson. Government Printmg Office, 1917. 
U S Treasury Department Public Health and Marmc Hospital Senr- 

ice of the United States: The Rat and Its Relation to the Public 

Health. (Various authors.) Government Printing Office, 19 10. 
VoN Schwartz, Dr., Fire and Explosion Risks, translated by Charles 

T. C. Salter. Charles Griffin & Co., London, 1 904. _ _ . ^ 
Walton, Thomas, Know Your Own Ship. Charles Griffin & Co^ 

London, 1901. „ . • i j n *- 

Winter, Wm. D., Marine Insurant, Its Principles and Practice. 

McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1919. 
For additional references on stowage of dangerous goods see list at end 
of Chapter XII. 







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If 



CHAPTER XIV 

CLEARING THE WHARVES* 

Movement of Merchandise on the Wharf 

Merchandise on a wharf must be handled many times. The 
problem confronting the wharf superintendent is to reduce the 
number of handlings to a minimum and to make each handling as 
inexpensive and as rapid as possible. Some of these movements 
may be enumerated as follows: 

In the first place, there is the movement to and from the pick- 
ing-up point opposite the ship's hatch while transferring cargo 
into the ship or taking away cargo that has been discharged from the 
ship. Beginning with discharged cargo, the first movement is to the 
piles on the wharf in which the goods are sorted according to marks 
and consignees. If adequate wharf space is available, piling and 
tiering is reduced to a minimum. Each consignee's shipment should 
be piled in a separate pile, all packages together ready for further 
movement. If errors are made or if space is not available, and one 
consignment is piled on top of another, it is necessary later to break 
out these piles and move them about the wharf. This is all waste 
that should be eliminated through proper organization and proper 
wharf design. The principal movements that follow sorting are ( i ) 
the delivery of goods to railroad cars; (2) to dray; (3) to lighters, 
and (4) to a warehouse adjacent to the transit shed. 

For short movement and odd jobs, within a small radius of travel, 
the hand truck will always be the most flexible and efficient tool. 
For longer distances, and for certain classes of goods, there are con- 
veyors and tractors of various kinds. For distances of more than 
150 or 200 feet other mechanical means are necessary, as both the 
hand truck and the conveyor, except in a few instances, become un- 
profitable. The advantages of the hand truck for short distances are 
the rapidity with which it can be loaded and unloaded and the 




Fig. 85.— hand truck. 



CLEARING THE WHARVES 231 

small amount of space that is required for moving -^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
means. It is the old relation of the termmal expense to the line hau 
• reduced to small proportion. For short movements of a few feet, the 
"terminal expense" of more compli- 
cated instruments eats up any ad- 
vantage of a more rapid movement 

horizontally. 

Hand Trucks.— Freight is han- 
dled several times in loading and 
discharging it to and from the ship. 
One of the first instruments used is 
the hand truck. Usually three men 
are required to operate this truck, one to wheel it, and two to load 
it. Wheeling a hand truck seems a simple operation, but really it is 
quite a knack, acquired only after considerable practice. 

— There are two positions in which 

a hand truck should repose when not 
in use : Standing on its wheels and 
legs with handles parallel to the 
floor, or standing on its wheels and 
nose with the handles in the air. The 
latter position is the most conven- 
ient, as the stevedore can grab it by 
the legs, wheel it to the load, tip it 
Fig. 86.— improper loading. up on its nose, and his hands will be 

protected by the handles while it is being loaded. After it is loaded, 
he shifts his hands to the handles, pulls it toward him to a proper 
balance, and wheels it to the destination. It is not so simple without 

practice. 

To load a hand truck with bags o/ sugar, coffee, etc., two men 

grab the bags, one at each end, and 
throw them on to the truck. The 
first bag must land on its side on 
the nose of the truck (Fig. 85), 
otherwise it will hang over, and the 
sharp edge of the nose will cut 
through the bag. All other bags 
must lie on their small side in order 
that a greater number may be placed 
on the truck. 





Fig. 87. — PROPER LOADING. 



* By R. S. MacElwce. 



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WHARF MANAGEMENT 



To load a barrel, tierce, or hogshead, tip it slightly, push the 
nose of the truck under the edges, reach over with the left hand, and 
pull it with the truck toward you to a proper balance, then wheel it 
away. If the load is heavy, another stevedore helps to push it over. 
Flour or other small barrels are loaded with one standing on its end, 
and another lying crosswise on top. 

When loading boxes, the strongest and heaviest are put on the 
truck first with the frail ones on top. In all cases, except with bales 
of cotton and tierces of tobacco, care must be exercised when un- 
loading. The truck must be allowed to come up slowly, permitting 
the load to strike the floor gently, after which the load is tipped 
slightly, and the truck removed. Cotton and tobacco may be rolled 
off the truck without damage. 

Electric Trucks. — There are two schools of electric truck en- 
thusiasts: Those who advocate a tractor and trailer system, and 
those who advocate a platform lift. The conclusion that may be 
drawn is that both systems are practical and applicable through 
different conditions. T"he platform-lift system has the advantage of 
greater flexibility and quicker starting and stopping, that is, a re- 
duced terminal time, and this advantage is decidedly in favor of the 
platform-lift truck for short hauls. However, the tractors with 
trailer platform, although they require a little longer time to hook up 
and unhook at the end of the haul, cover a greater number of ton- 
miles per man. There is no reason why a terminal should not be 
equipped with both kinds, provided the platforms or the trailer 
trucks are constructed in such a manner that the platform-lift truck 
and the trailer truck can both operate. In delivery of small con- 
signments to drays, the platform-lift truck has a distinct advantage, 
while in a longer haul with larger consignments of goods the tractor- 
trailer system has the advantage. Some figures concerning the sav- 
ing of time and expense by using the electric trailer truck or other 
similar devices are shown in the following tables made by L. H. 
Haight. These stop-watch studies should be a guide to improve- 
ment in cutting time at various points along the line of operation. 

Telphers. — There are two* principal kinds of telphers: The 
monorail man trolley that travels hanging from an overhead rail, 
and the chain conveyors that are used in handling cotton in Mobile 
and Texas City, and elsewhere, or for handling frozen meats in Lon- 
don. The chain conveyor is adapted only to certain classified special- 



CLEARING THE WHARVES 



233 



ized packages, such as those mentioned, for which they are specially 
constructed. It is necessary to use the hand truck to bring the arti- 
cles from the point of deposit on the wharf to the trolley. 

The telpher that operates on an overhead track has been developed 
to greater flexibility by the introduction of a shop-crane crossover 
track or adjustable loop. The telpher will run along the tracks at 
the side of the shed until it comes to the point opposite the place 
where it desires to pick up or deposit merchandise, when the cross- 
over or loop track will be run down to this, point and by means of a 
switch the telpher or trolley will be able to cross over the bay on the 
loop. This makes it possible to cover every portion of the floor space. 
However, this equipment is expensive. It has been used to very great 
advantage in several sugar refineries and in the municipal cotton 
warehouses in New Orleans and also in those at Manchester. The 
cost of installation is great ; it is not so flexible as it should be, but 
it has the advantage of traveling through unoccupied space, making 
high tiering possible, and thus saving floor space. Considerable 
development is still to be made in the transfer of cargo through un- 
occupied space, where the hand truck and electric storage battery 
truck are now in general use and deserve considerable attention. 

Time Study of Movement at New York 

These tables would show, first, what was actually being done by 
machinery now in use ; second, they would show the many variations 
under which cargo is being handled; and, third, they might show 
(low the work could be speeded up. 

One point the tables bring out very clearly, and that is the 
unsteadiness of men in this work. The tables show that in very 
few instances are the same operations performed twice in exactly the 
same time. For instance, take the operation of loading 32 cases of 
condensed milk on an "airplane" platform. As noted in the table, 
the time varies from 1 minute 48 seconds, to 1 minute 56 seconds. 
It was plain that, in every instance, the time could just as well have 
been 1 minute flat, and if it were possible to use machines in this 
operation, the time would have been less, and each figure registered 
would have been the same. 

The tables also show that, by employing fewer men and more 
machinery, cargo can be handled with greater speed and at less 



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Note.— Mr. Haight states the following: , 

In this case it was possible to record the operations 20 times, and 
it seems proper at this point to explain the method and difliculty 
under which these tables were obtained. 

In the first place, it is impossible for one person to see every 
activity in connection with the loading and unloading of any one 
commodity. For instance, in handling the goods enumerated m the 
above table, there were four hand trucks wheeling cases to one 
"airplane," and, of course, it was possible to operate the stop-watch 
on only one truck at a time, so I timed one truck a certain number 
of times, another truck the same number of times and so on until 
all four trucks were timed. The same method was used in loading 

these trucks. , „ . , ., i j- 

It will be noted that while the total "airplane loading time is 
37 minutes 22 seconds, the total wheeling time is 40 minutes 30 
seconds and the total hand-truck loading time is only 25 minutes 
12 seconds. This shov^rs that there was some waiting, and «iat 
three, instead of four, hand trucks should have been used. The 
figure 2 M. under "Wheel across pier," represents the time for 
four trucks, while the actual time is 30 seconds. The total 
column is used to show the time of all activities, while the actual 
time of getting the goods into the ship, is shown under the column 
"Stow." 

cost. Commissioner Hulbert says, "The steamship companies are 
satisfied with the present equipment, and do not desire more 
machinery installed." 

By employing a tractor and four trailers, with an "airplane" on 
each trailer, we can back up to where the goods are stored, load all 
four "planes" in the same time that it would take to load one plane, 
and drive across the pier in less time than it would take with four 
hand trucks, which are now being used, and as the planes are already 
loaded, there will be no reloading at the ship's side. While the 
trailers are traveling across the pier, a stevedore can adjust the 
slings, making it necessary simply to "hook on" at the ship's side, 
thus, practically doing away with the time it now takes to sling 
the goods. 

The plan condensed, is simply this. The ship will have two 
cranes to a hatch. There will be a tractor and eight trailers on the 
pier for this particular hatch. There will be 12 platforms, 4 in the 
hold, 4 on the trailers loaded, and 4 being loaded where the goods 
are stored. 

The procedure will be as follows. On the pier: Load 4 plat- 
forms, wheel across pier, unhook tractor, return for another set of 
trailers that have been loaded in the meantime, wheel across pier, 






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CLEARING THE WHARVES 



253 



hook on empty trailers, return for another load, and so on. On the 
ship : Hook on draft, hoist and lower to hold, stow, return platform 
to trailer, and so on. The return of the tractor with empty trailers 
has no business in the table, because it does not lose any time. 

The time, using the figures in the table, will be as follows: 
Loading 4 platforms (128 cases), 1 minute 54 seconds. Wheel 
across pier — this time is cut in half as tractors travel faster than 
hand trucks — 1 minute. Hook on — this time is reduced because the 
sling is adjusted while crossing the pier — 8 seconds. Hoist and 
lower to hold (128 cases), 3 minutes 20 seconds. Unload, 3 minutes 
20 seconds. Return platform to trailer, 3 minutes 50 seconds. If 
this is repeated 20 times, 2,560 cases will be handled in approxi- 
mately 353 minutes and 54 seconds, as against 640 cases in 251 
minutes and 43 seconds by hand trucks. 



Sorting Coffee on Wharves at New Orleans 

Efficient Methods of Handling Discharged Goods on Pier. — In 
other parts of this book the discussion is limited altogether to load- 
ing operations with the implication that discharge is not essentially 
different. However, there is one vital problem met in discharging 
that is not found in loading, namely, that of sorting and piling the 
discharged goods. The shipowner must not only put the goods on 
the lighter or pier, but he must separate the different consignments. 
How onerous a task this may become under some circumstances is 
shown in the following quotation from the report of the subcom- 
mittee appointed through the Chamber of Commerce of New Orleans 
to investigate the handling of coffee cargoes.^ 

The undersigned subcommittee, appointed to investigate the dis- 
charge of the cargo of coffee ex-S,S. Manchurian Prince is glad to 
report the results of their investigation, but before entering into the 
details, wish to express their appreciation for the kindness and valu- 
able assistance rendered by Messrs. Warriner, agents of the above- 
mentioned steamer, as well as by Superintendent Wren and officials 
of the Dock Board, who assisted in every possible way and gave all 
information requested. 



'Manuscript loaned by the Chamber of Commerce, New Orleans. 



Il 

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I 






254 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

As the object of this investigation is not to pass criticisni on the 
present methods, but to make suggestions to improve actual condi- 
tions, we will abstain from making such comments and merely state 
facts and offer for the consideration of the committee suggestions, 
which, in the opinion of this subcommittee, may relieve the situation 

to a certain extent. , 

The steamship, Manckurian Prince, arrived on July 7 ana 

was given a berth at the Poydras Street shed from section num- 

bers 1 to 23 (the balance of this shed is being used by the Barge 

'"^Discharge of the cargo of this steamer was somewhat hampered 
by the fact that part of the wharf was still being occupied by the 
coffee unloaded from the steamship Maud M. Morey, which, 
although she finished her discharge on June 27, when the Man- 
chunan Prince arrived, on the morning of July 7, there were still on 
hand 14,620 sacks scattered in small piles in sections 11 to 23, on 
the river side, and 16 to 23 on the street side. Most of this coffee 
had been already weighed, but to the best of the information of this 
committee, through its changing hands from one owner to the other, 
delivery had not been taken from the wharf. 

The stevedores of the Manchunan Prince vftxt compelled to 
move the coffee of the Maud M. Morey at different times on July 7» 
8, 9, 10, and 11. The expense in moving this coffee was for account 

of the said Manchunan Prince. . , ,: o u f 

The Maud M. Morey arrived June 21, with 26,583 bags ot 
coffee, and notwithstanding she completed her discharge on June 27, 
as stated above, on the morning of July 7, there were still on hand 
14,620 bags, which prevented the Manchunan Prince beginning 
unloading from hold No. 5 until July 11. 

The 14,620 bags were taken delivery of, as follows: 

July 7, 1919 4.718 bags 

July 8, 1919 4'^° » 

July 9, 1919 ^'^oi 

July 10, 1919 ^'990 ., ^ ^ 

July 11, 1919 ^»°4i 14.620 bags 

In order to obtain prompt relief at the wharf it was necessary for 
the Dock Board to use all persuasive means to induce the consignees 
of the cargo of the Maud M. Morey to take delivery of the balance 
of same. 



CLEARING THE WHARVES 



^SS 



This subcommittee has prepared the attached schedule No. 1, 
from which you will see in detail the work performed on the 
Manchurian Prince, and you will please note that the discharge of 
hatch No. 5 only began on the nth, due, as stated above, to the 
coffee ex-S. S. Maud M, Morey occupying space at the shed which 
had been allocated to the Manchurian Prince. 

This steamer should have completed her discharge on the after- 
noon of the 15th when hatch No. 2 was finished. This being on 
practically all ships the largest hold, the discharge should be so 
arranged that when the unloading of this hold is completed the 
balance of the cargo should be all out. Therefore, outside of the 
expense incurred in shifting the coffee from the Maud M. Morey 
from one place to another, there was an actual loss of time of 
one day to the Manchurian Prince, which loss Messrs. Warriner 
estimate to be about $4,000, and due to the above-mentioned 
conditions. 

In the course of previous meetings it had been stated that one of 
the many reasons why there is a delay in taking delivery of the 
coffee immediately after the arrival of the ship, is the absence of 
shipping documents, but in the present case this feature does not 
enter into consideration, as entries were made at the customhouse, 
as follows: 



On July 9 99,220 bags 

On July 10 9,800 " 

On July 14 2,000 " 1 1 1,020 



bags 



Owing to conditions at the port of loading, it is very difficult to 
separate the cargo in the holds of the ship in order to be able to 
know on arrival of the steamer in which hold each individual mark 
has been loaded. While these can be known on coffees loaded at Rio 
and Victoria, at Santos, where the largest percentage of coffee is 
loaded, it is sent alongside the ship in trucks and loaded indiscrimi- 
nately, therefore making it impossible to effect a separation by marks 
in the holds. 

Due to these circumstances, no plan is prepared as to how the 
cargo is to be stored in the shed, but as the coffee is being unloaded 
spaces are allocated for the different marks, with the result that at 
the time half of the cargo is out, there are different piles of the same 
mark in different sections of the shed, which hampers the delivery to 
the consignees and consequently the delay in clearing the coffee as it 



M 



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256 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



CLEARING THE WHARVES 



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is unloaded from the ship. Furthermore, a great deal of space is 
wasted in unnecessary gangways that, under the present method, 
have to be left unused in order to enable the men handling the coffee 
to get to the different piles. 

During the course of the discharge there is always a certain 
percentage of bags which are landed torn or damaged and all these 
are stacked in one lot, which is called the "slack pile," and until the 
ship has completed discharge this coffee is separated by the different 
marks. 

This hampers the discharge, as some of the consignees delay 
taking delivery of their lots until the said separation has been 
performed, especially lots going to the interior, where they naturally 
wish to send the complete number of bags as covered by the S. S. 
bill of lading ; or if they take delivery, there are always left small 
piles which occupy large spaces. For instance, on the nth of July 
bill of lading No. 7, from Victoria, consigned to Messrs. Hard & 
Rand, covering 250 bags marked H.R. 34, and 230 bags marked H.R. 
80, of this latter lot only 235 were delivered on that date, leaving 
15 bags pending which, to all intents and purposes, are in the 
slack pile. 

It has been customary for the different coffee importers to assort 
their lots by the different numbers of each mark covered by one bill 
of lading. This assortment not only requires a much larger area 
to effect this handling, but unnecessarily delays the clearing of 
the coffee. The coffee is usually piled on the wharf from 12 
to 15 bags high, and at the time this reassortment and reweigh- 
ing is performed the weighers, for the convenience of their work, 
only stack the coffee six bags high, which, you will readily ap- 
preciate, at least dupli'^ates the space used in the handling of the 

coffee. 

Furthermore, the importers do not take delivery of the coffee as 
promptly as it is discharged, as several sales of the same lot of coffee 
are carried out during the time the coffee is being unloaded on 
the wharf. These sales are not always made of the total num- 
ber of bags covered by the steamship bill of lading, but this 
amount is divided into one, two, or three lots, which necessitates 
extra handling in each instance, thus further delaying the de- 
livery from the wharf, which becomes practically a private ware- 
house, thus increasing the area required for the storage of the 
coffee. 

The following will confirm the above statement: 



257 



Bill of lading No. 5, from Rio, covered 1,000 bags marked 
J.A.A. 1/14, consigned to J. Aron & Company, who sold them to 
Messrs. Seago & Company, who in turn sold them to Messrs. Levy & 
Company. In order that Messrs. Levy & Company could take 
delivery, Messrs. Seago & Company requested the following 
separations : 



1 — 20 
2 — 23 
3—20 

4-43 
5-^4 
6—57 
7—59 



8—112 

9— 75 

10 — 248 

11 — 42 

12 — 40 

13— 33 
14—153 



Bill of lading No. 6, from Rio, covered 1,000 bags marked 
J.B.A. 15/28, consigned to J. Aron & Company, who sold to Messrs. 
Seago & Company 750 bags and 250 bags to be shipped to the 
interior, therefore, making it necessary to separate by the different 
numbers. 

Bill of lading No. 65, from Santos, covered 2,500 bags marked 
G. C/A. 1/19, consigned to Messrs. G. Amsinck & Company. The 
said firm, instead of taking delivery of the whole lot as called for 
by the bill of lading, requested on July 16 that they be allowed to 
take delivery of only 1 ,000 bags, made up as follows : 



1—32 
2—71 

3—35 
4—18 

5-^80 



8— 13 

9—277 

10 — 50 

17— 25 

18 — 100 



19—299 



Messrs. Warriner declined to allow this assortment and the 
matter was taken up with the Dock Board, who authorized on July 
18 that the said lot should all be taken delivery of at once, divided 
in the following three lots : 

To Messrs. G. Amsinck & Co ^00 bags 

Ruffner, McDowell & Burch 1,000 " 

G. Amsinck & Co 1,000 " 

as follows: 



\\ 






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m 



: 



258 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



CLEARING THE WHARVES 



259 



- 


RuFFNER McDowell 


Amsinck to 


Amsinck & Co. 


& BURCH 


Warehouse 


1-2 1 


53 


32 


2-47 


218 


71 


3-23 


58 


35 
18 


4-12 


24 


5-40 


• • 


80 


6-24 


96 


• • 


7-31 


122 


• • 


8-4 


• • 


13 


9-70 


• • 


277 


10-43 


84 


50 


11-42 


151 




12-10 


41 




13-12 


57 




14-10 


42 




15-10 


40 




16- 4 


14 




17-6 


• • 


25 


18-25 


• • 


100 


19-75 


• • 


299 


500 


1,000 


1,000 



Bill of lading No. 15, from Rio, covered 500 bags marked H.R. 
1/3, consigned to Messrs. Hard & Rand. This firm wrote on the 7th 
of July to Mr. G. A. Peyrefitte, as follows : 

Please weigh ex-dock S, S, Manchurian Prince coffee to the fol- 
lowing. Submark each lot as shown below. Charge all to our ac- 
count. 



Henry Lochte Co. Ltd. 
H.R. 20) — 25 Saturday 
J.R. 3)— 25 

Submark: H. L. C. 



L. C. Fallon & Co. 
H.R.) 1 — 54 Saturday 
J.R.) 2—27 
3—169 



Albert Mackie Co., Ltd., 
H.R.) 1— 25 
J.R.) 2—25 

3 — 125 Monday 

175 
Submark : A. M. C. 



250 
Submark: L. C. F. 

A. Wahking & Sons. 
H.R.) 3—25 Saturday 
J.R.) 



Submark : A. W. S. 



Bill of lading No. 10, from Rio, covered 1,000 bags marked 
S. C./C. 34/58, consigned to Messrs. Stewart Camel Company, Ltd., 
had to be separated as follows : 



34—78 
35—72 
36—90 

37—29 

38 — 20 

39—25 
40—19 
41—27 
42 — 61 

43—11 
44—67 

45—12 
46—45 



47—92 
48 — ^42 

49—75 

50—30 

51-58 

52—33 
53—34 
54—13 
55—27 
56 — 11 
57—23 
58— 6 



To effect the above or similar separations at the wharf at the 
time of discharge, considerably increases the necessary area to store 
the coffee, and if no separation is made at the time of discharge it 
delays the deliveries until there is sufficient sp.ice to perform the 

work. 

Bill of lading No. 15, from Victoria, covered 2,000 bags marked 
V & L/Brazil 13/16, consigned to J. Aron & Company. Of No. 13 
there were 650, and of these 500 were sold to Messrs. K. Seago & 
Company, thus leaving for account of Aron & Company 1,500 bags. 

Bill of lading No. 15, from Victoria, covering 2,000 bags. Out 
of these there were 366 of chop No. 3. Messrs. Aron & Company, 
as per their order 2010, registered 4656, sold three bags to Messrs. 
L. C. Fallon & Company, who in turn disposed of them to Nicholas 
Burke & Company, and were sold by this firm to Bloom's Sons Com- 
pany, who finally sold them again to Messrs. T. J. Henderson, and 
this firm took delivery of same on the 18th of July. 

Bill of lading No. 5, from Victoria, covered 500 bags; 250 bags 
marked HR 35 and 250 marked HR 77, consigned to Messrs. M. 
Levy & Son, who sold them to Messrs. Bloom's Sons Company, who 
again sold them to Messrs. J. Aron & Company, and finally taken 
delivery of by L. C. Fallon & Company. 

Several other cases under the same conditions as above could be 
cited, but this subcommittee feels that those already quoted will be 
sufficient to enlighten you as to the practice at pres«,'nt followed. 
This practice is not permitted at New York, where the coffee must 
be taken delivery of immediately after discharge, although item for 



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1 1 1 



260 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

item the cost of handling at the said port is greater than the cost 

of this port. 

You will find attached herewith statement No. 2, showmg m 
detail the number of bags daily hauled by each consignee, and your 
particular attention is called to the fact that on the 31st of July, or 
15 days after the steamer had completed discharge, there were still 

on hand 774 bags. 

The delay in taking delivery of the coffee not only works a 
hardship on the Dock Board by occupying space which is so badly 
needed for other coffee cargoes, but represents an expense to the 
agent of the line, as, according to the customs of the port they 
are responsible to the consignees for the coffee until delivered, and 
consequently have to employ a sufficient number of watchmen to 

take care of the coffee. 

By glancing over statement No. 2, you will please note that the 
firm of Israel Brothers took prompt delivery of their lots ; this being 
due to the fact that this firm assorted their different lots and weighed 
them at a private warehouse. 

We unhesitatingly recommend that every influence be brought 
upon the Dock Board to build two-story warehouses, the lower floor 
to be used for the receiving of the import coffee and the upper floor 
for the assortment and reweighing, for which operation a charge 
could be made to the importer, which will not result in an additional 
burden, as, we repeat, the charges through New Orleans are much 
lower than through other ports.^ , , , u- 

As previously mentioned, no plan is prepared by the steamship 
agents on arrival of the coffee cargoes as to how these are to be stowed 
in the shed, but the subcommittee has prepared for the consideration 
of all interested parties the attached tentative plan, from which you 
will note that in the available space 111,020 bags manifested per 
the Manchunan Prince were distributed, leaving necessary space for 
the different gangways of three feet in width, from which you will 
please note that the whole cargo could have been stored in Poydras 
Shed, even assuming that no coffee was taken delivery of until after 
completion of the discharge. 

» The two-story shed recommended here is an attempt to supply support- 
ing warehouse or storage space (... Bulletin American Assoaation of P^^^^^^ 
A.u •♦:-o n*.*. lo^n article bv R. S. MacElwee). The three-story 
CrtsTj :. t?ptsuch as Ttt^rmy Supply Base,. Philadelphia, would fill 
ThU need"^ It is the writer's opinion that this sorting, weighing, reselling, 
I'n" other merchandising processes should be C"",^^ «" >" J.^/^.^^^^^^^ 
the marginal street from the transit shed, reached by bridge and trailer 

trucks or conveyors. 



CLEARING THE WHARVES 



261 



However, as per statement No. 2, the committee will note that 
the unloading having commenced on the 7th, deliveries were made on 
the 9th; therefore, the space is sufficient to take care of one of the 
average monthly cargoes coming to this port, as outside of the 
Glenative and the Chinese Prince, which had 114,000 and 115,000 
bags, respectively, all the other cargoes were around 100,000 and 
the majority under 100,000 bags. 

As an explanation of this plan we took as a basis lots of 250 
bags, 500 bags, and 1,000 bags, as in the majority of cases these are 
the numbers covered by each bill of lading. 

The wharf was divided into four sections, Section A, on which 
the piles can be built up to 15 bags high, and Sections B, C, and D, 
on which piles can be built only up to 12 bags high. 

While the piles can be stored higher, owing to the lack of 
machinery and in order to facilitate the separation of the different 
lots as per bill of lading in the attached plan, the lots are piled only 
up to 12 and 15 bags high. 

In Section A, on which you will see only lots of lOO bags are 
stacked, the piles have been made of 10 bags in length and 7 in 
width, occupying 30 by 14 feet, or 420 square feet, which gives room 
enough for 1,005 bags. 

On the lot 12 bags high the following sized piles have been 

planned : 

Of 250 bags: Square occupying i8xi2 feet, or 216 

square feet, with sufficient room to 

store 288 bags. 
Of 500 bags: Square occupying 21 x 12 feet, or 252 

square feet, with sufficient room to 

store 504 bags. 
Of 1,000 bags: Square occupying 36x14 feet, or 504 

square feet, with sufficient room to 

store 1 ,004 bags. 

We would suggest that on arrival of each steamer the Dock 
Board be furnished with a copy of the manifest, when a similar plan 
can be prepared showing the space in which each individual lot is to 
be unloaded. While this may require a larger number of men 
properly to stack the coffee in its specific lots, as it may be that the 
spaces allocated to one mark are on the opposite side of the ship to 
the hold in which it has been loaded, yet the number of men used in 
effecting this separation would compensate the interested parties for 
the time saved to the ship and help in clearing the coffee from 
the wharf. 



t 



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262 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

By following the above method the coffee that is daily landed 
from the ship in a damaged condition and at present stacked m the 
slack pile could be daily reconditioned and redistributed to its spe- 
cific lots, thereby enabling the consignee to take delivery of 

complete lots. 

By following the above plan it would not be possible to separate 
the different lots as they are landed by chop numbers, but this sub- 
committee would suggest that on arrival of the steamer each con- 
signee should deliver to the Dock Board his request as to how he 
desires his lots to be subdivided, and as space is being vacated by 
deliveries made, each consignee could be allowed to shift the coffee 
from the original piles to the space so vacated and use same for 
reweighing and separating the marks by the different chop numbers. 

In order to avoid confusion at the wharf, a consignee should not 
be allowed to reweigh or separate more than one lot at a time ; that 
is to say, until one lot as per bill of lading has been cleared out of 
the wharf, the consignees could not commence to separate or reweigh 

the next lot. . , , 1 v i. 

This subcommittee has also prepared an index by marks, which 
is attached herewith and which completes the plan of distribution, 
so that each consignee could know where his coffee was going to be 
stored and therefore be able to ascertain when the complete lot as per 
bill of lading had been unloaded and therefore proceed to take 
delivery without delay. It is evident that if all three interested 
parties, the Dock Board, the steamship agent, and the coffee importer, 
would cooperate, especially the latter by hauling his coffee as soon 
as the piles are completed, the present difficult situation could be 

greatly relieved. • • j 

This subcommittee begs leave to submit the above report, inspired 
in their sincere desire to assist, although in a very modest way, in the 
improvement of conditions which in a way may hamper the develop- 
ment of the port which we all have at heart. {Sgd. Hegowisch.) 

Fortunately these conditions are not representative of all dis- 
charging operations. In comparison, the steps ordinarily necessary to 
deliver the different consignments seem comparatively simple. 1 here 
are, however, in almost all cases, some difficulties to be overcome. 
There is lack of room on many one-story piers and the goods have 
to be piled "on the farm," that is, on the pavement or street at the 
end of the pier; there are the problems of piling; and there must 
always be a slack pile for damaged goods to be recoopered, resewn. 
tnZd or adjusted. The best methods of carrying the freight from 



CLEARING THE WHARVES 



263 



the point of discharge to the storage space have been indicated in 
the preceding section; there remain the questions of separation 

and stacking. . , . , . .t. 

Separation is accomplished in part in the hold and in part on the 
pier If it can be done without undue delay, drafts should be made 
up of goods of one consignment only. Since the different consign- 
ments are generally easily distinguishable by mark or character, and 
since many consignments are of one character throughout separa- 
tion in the hold is not as difficult as one might imagine. The one- 
consignment draft can be lowered to a truck and rolled directly to 
the place of storage. In order that the separations may be clearly 
made and that the longshoremen may not become confused, the 
transit shed of the pier should be marked off into divisions. The 
most common and perhaps the best method of doing this is to hang 
prominent signs down the middle of the length of the transit shed 
These are always visible from almost any point in the shed and 
accomplish their main purpose without being in the way. 

Most American piers have a driveway down their center, and it 
would seem desirable that the truckman keep out of this space by 
using a passageway along the wall, for this would be more direct 
and would enable him to avoid the teams. However, he is forced to 
use the longer congested path, because all the storage ^P^^/ "*«J ** 
wall is needed and because he would cut across the places of discharge 
of other hatches if he went along the wall. The traveling crane has 
some advantage here, for it takes the direct path.* 

Wharf Congestion at Havana, Cuba 

The sure and inevitable retribution of wharf congestion that 
follows the violation of sound wharfinger principles is illustrated by 
the complete collapse of the Fort of Havana, Cuba during 1920. 
The original fault, as in all world ports, is the failure of new 
construction and equipment to keep pace with increased commerce. 
The last straw that broke the camel's back was a series of longshore- 
men strikes, yet it would have been possible to carry on and to 
prevent complete congestion if certain principles had not been vio- 
lated. These are briefly st ated in the following report of the Joint 

' Taylor, Stowage of Ship Cargoes. 



f ;; 



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264 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

Cuban-American Commission and the comments of the writer (R. S. 
MacElwee) to Joshua W. Alexander, United States Secretary of 
Commerce, who appointed the American Commission. 

The Executive Committee of the American Commission and the 
Cuban Commission, which have met to consider and recommend 
measures for relieving the congestion in the Port of Havana, having 
made a thorough study of the situation, at a number of sessions, 
unanimously agree to recommend that, in order to relieve the existing 
congestion in the Port of Havana and to enable importers and 
merchants to take prompt delivery of their cargo from the piers, 
wharves, and warehouses in the littoral, the following emergency 
measures, none of which is contrary to the customs regulations in 
force, be adopted : 

First : Extension of guedan » to all classes of merchandise per- 
mitting dispatch upon request of the importers in either partial lots 

or total shipment. . . 

Second: The privilege of partial dispatch be granted, perm.ttmg 
the withdrawal of part of the shipment and basing the duties upon 
the assessment or appraisal of sample packages, to the extent ot 

about 10 per cent. f . 

Third : That the Customs eliminate minor restrictions, as tar as 

possible, so as to facilitate the granting of guedan to all classes of 

merchandise. , ,• u 

Fourth: That partial clearance and delivery of shipments be 
allowed at the request of consignee as soon as such merchandise is 
reported ready for delivery, not subjecting such cases to the pro- 
cedure of Article 172 of the Customs Regulations, but only to 
provisional procedure, in order that the goods so requested may be 
immediately dispatched. 

Fifth : That merchandise, other than dry goods, notions, etc., not 
requiring special examination by the Customs, be cleared and dis- 
patched in the place in which same is discharged from vessel or 
other water craft, and that such merchandise be duly classified at 

that place. 

Sixth: That the Government authorize the discharge to and 
place under Customs supervision any and all piers, wharves, or 



•A certificate of pro forma entry at the Customs. 



CLEARING THE WHARVES 



265 



warehouses in the harbor which may be used for the discharge of 
merchandise in accordance with Customs Regulations. 

Seventh: That the collector of customs be directed to dispose 
immediately of all merchandise now held in store pending sale in 
accordance with Articles 107, 108, and 109 of the Customs 

Regulations. 

Eighth: (a) That the Government allow the establishment ot 
bonded warehouses of any of the classes mentioned in the existing 
Customs Regulations, so as to make available additional room for 
storage of goods now on piers, wharves, and warehouses in the 
littoral «; and (b) that it authorize and designate private warehouses, 
stores, etc., as bonded warehouses, to permit the deposit therein of 
merchandise subject to duty, according to the provisions of Articles 
185 and 186 of the Customs Regulations. 

Ninth : That the Government commandeer any public property 
that may be available for the purpose of storing merchandise and 
have any such property bonded under the Customs Regulations. 

Tenth : That in cases where merchandise dispatched by quedan 
is not removed by the owner within the 48-hour period, as prescribed 
in the Customs Regulations, same shall be subject to the provisions 
contained in Article 1 16 of the Customs Regulations. 

Eleventh: (a) That the Government issue a call to all importers, 
brokers and others to cooperate with the Government in its efforts to 
relieve the actual congestion of the port and wharves, by removing 
immediately— from the piers, wharves, and warehouses located in 
the littoral, whether public or belonging to private corporations, into 
which direct discharge of freight from vessels is made, all merchan- 
dise that should be removed under the customhouse regulations; 
and (b) that when issuing such call, the Government notify im- 
porters, brokers, and others that, after a period of fifteen days from 
date, Articles 116 and 107, 108, and 109 of the Customs Regulations 
will be strictly applied to all merchandise on all Government and 
private wharves and piers at the Port of Havana. 

The following recommendations designed to bring relief to con- 
gested shipping conditions at Havana Harbor were proposed by the 
American Committee but were not adopted by the joint action of the 
Cuban and American Commission: 

•The "littoral" is the water front where vessels are loaded and dis- 
charged. 



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266 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

Paragraph U.— (fl) That the Government shall issue a call to 
all importers, brokers, merchants, and others to remove imme- 
diately all merchandise from piers, wharves, and warehouses located 
within the littoral into which discharge of merchandise from vessels 
or other water craft is made. 

(b) That the Government in issuing such a call shall advise 
owners that if such merchandise is not removed by them from the 
littoral within fifteen (15) days from date of this call, that the 
collector of customs shall take possession thereof as unclaimed. 

(c) That if such merchandise is not removed by the owners 
within this 15-day period, the collector of customs shall, at the 
expense of the merchandise, cause it to be removed to warehouses or 
other places of storage, designated by the Government as available 
and suitable for such storage. 

(d) Merchandise designated in subparagraph (c) shall, upon 
the expiration of the 15-day period provided in notice, immediately 
become subject to storage charges to be collected by the Government 
in accordance with Treasury Department Circular No. 11, February 

1, 1908. 

(e) In case merchandise is not removed from designated ware- 
houses within statutory period, coFlector of customs shall take steps 
to dispose of same in the manner prescribed in Chapter VIII, Article 
116, of the Customs Regulations. 

Paragraph 12.— Merchandise discharged to pie-s, wharves, or 
warehouses within the littoral, subsequent to this notice, and not 
withdrawn within the usual free time period granted by established 
dock regulations, shall immediately become subject to provisions of 
subparagraphs (c), (d), and (e) in paragraph 11. 

Paragraph 13.— Until such time as the lighters in the harbor 
have discharged their present cargoes, there shall be set aside, for 
their exclusive use for discharge of cargo, wharves additional to 
those already so used. This will facilitate their discharge and 
prevent destruction of property that might occur in case of severe 

storms. 

Paragraph 14.— That in order to carry out the emergency meas- 
ures recommended herein, a highly competent port director or port 
commission be appointed by the Government with full authority to 
coordinate port activities and to employ and enforce such other lawful 



CLEARING THE WHARVES 



267 



and practical measures as will result in relieving existing port 
congestion, thereby insuring an early restoration of an uninterrupted 
flow of traffic in and out of the port.^ 

The Joint Commission further considers that the present capacity 
of the public docks of Havana is not in proportion to the increasing 
traffic of the port, and that, for this reason, any circumstance that 
produces an interruption in the movement of cargo will bring about 
a congestion of the wharves. 

It likewise considers that the lack of spacious public warehouses 
for merchandise classed under "general order," is one of the princi- 
pal causes of the existing congestion, since it is evident that the 
moderate rates charged by the private wharves induce many importers 
to leave their merchandise there until they are able to effect its sale. 

In consequence, the Commission considers that it is absolutely 
indispensable that the Government undertake the construction of 
additional wharves or the enlargement of those now existing, and 
that it proceed to build, in the business district, large warehouses for 
the storage of merchandise classed under "general order." 

Done in Havana, on the eleventh of August, nineteen hundred 
and twenty, in the English and Spanish languages. 

The Cuban financial situation was adversely affected because of 
the "frozen credits" in the harbor. This harbor congestion was a 
powerful contributory cause of the financial panic that followed in 
October, 1920, the chief cause of which was the decline in the world's 
market price of sugar. 

There are many points involved in the Havana port congestion 
that every wharf superintendent and port director should take to 
heart. The full recounting of these reports in this book at this time 
will show more emphatically than any academic discussion ever can 
the necessity for keeping wharves clear of merchandise. Transit 
sheds are for working ships, not for storing merchandise, and the 
merchandise must be kept moving. 



'Col. Manuel Despaigne, a member of the Joint Commission, was ap- 
pointed by Pres. Menocal to this position in December, 1920. 



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WHARF MANAGEMENT 

DISCUSSION or REPORT O. THE Jo.KT COMMISSION 

The nature of the conditions as we foundj^em - be b.t 

ZCe:c::S;::d'to S of the «pon of the Joi. commission. 

. J u , rertificate of pro forma entry, which permits 
First : A guedan is a certihcate oi ;/ y ^^^^ 

the merchant to withdraw perishable 6-^ J^ P/^'^^ 5 P ^^^.^^ 
of the duty as estimated on the consular invoice A 
have been properly calculated the difference r funde 
merchant. By interpreting al goods »f ^^ 3"i,,,,es them- 

r • f -^Shit •■ t:7;sr retn--% /.,.. e-y 

selves, as perishable, it l~ f interpretation of the 

privilege ^o^l--%tZZ the merchUt to withdraw his goods 
word "perishable, -msenab, ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ 

immediately and to take care ot ^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^j^^ 

rather involved, at a future time, ^yesu't ^^^ 

-\-^ ^':: tlTfi*: ~:osli*; jSelLs formaU. 
Ta^Lrgt wWvel This was proposed as desirable at 
the first meeting in your office at Wa^-g^n ^^ ^^^^^ 

The privilege of d-P=^ f '" j;;;^; ^^° Cuban customs regula- 
„.„t -s ex--ly r" r^f Xl entirety be complete at 
t.ons required that a '^"P'"^"^ J . ^^3 „d there, or at spe- 
o„e point and each Pf JJ^ J^/^^^J^^ ^ials before the goods 

.ialized -'7 ;— X the otgestion and the resulting confu- 
could be dispatched Due to h J ^^^^^^^ ^.^^^^^^ 

sion. P""'"'"^y *! ''"t J bVcame impossible to gather the goods 
scattered about ^^^^"'^^l^^^^)Z?ly\'^^^^^ the withdrawal of 

-:rir:ragrwas ~^^^^j. t 

=JZ ^t rat:vr;^lCc;; - where the; .nd them 
aud remove ^^^ ,^ ,,i„„,ed and also 

, if Xl^hat thTduty' oft^^^ 

— T ieport .0 the United ~i;i^^"^cre.ary of Commerc,. Jo»hua W. 

Alexander. 



CLEARING THE WHARVES 



269 



packages, it having been the customs practice to investigate each 
individual package of a shipment, even though fifty or a hundred 
packages might be identical. There is nothing in the customs 
regulation to require this. By using the American method of holding 
10 per cent of a consignment for the appraisers, it will be possible 
for the importer to leave the samples for inspection and appraisal 
and withdraw the 90 per cent of his goods immediately on a quedan. 

Fourth: This paragraph is a further summary of the more 
specific statements of the preceding three paragraphs. 

Fifth : It has been the custom at Havana to send merchandise to 
certain classified customs wharves to be appraised there. The fre- 
quent removal of goods and handling to the various commodity 
wharves was expensive, even when movement was free and easy, 
but under present congested conditions it became impossible to do so. 
Therefore, by permitting or authorizing the inspection of the goods 
as they lie this handling would be eliminated and goods could be 
inspected and removed at once. Dry goods are excepted because 
they would be subject to damage and pilferage if opened on a 
general wharf. 

Sixth : By declaring all wharves "customs wharves" the customs 
officials and the appraisers could go to any wharf and there inspect 
the merchandise and thereby avoid the necessity of removing the 
goods to regular customs wharves. "Customs wharves,'* therefore, 
was extended to mean every point where goods could be discharged. 
This relieves congestion of the established customs wharves. . . . 

Seventh: It is estimated that about one-seventh of the space of 
bulkhead warehouses of the Port of Havana Docks Company is 
occupied by "unclaimed goods" that have been there from six months 
to four years. Goods unclaimed and left in the hands of the cus- 
toms may be taken by the customs at the end of five days, and if not 
claimed at the expiration of six months are to be sold at auction to 
cover . customs duties and expenses for storage. When the customs 
auctioneer put these goods up for auction at the end of six months 
and the bid fell below a sum to cover the customs revenue and the 
cost of storage, he declared "no sale" and put the goods back in 
storage for another six months or until some future auction. The 
customs auctioneer often maintained that there was collusion among 






iliiliiiiW 









„o WHARF MANAGEMENT 

the buyers to keep the price down to an insignificant amount, by 
w ich ' he GoverLent would be the loser. On the contra . 
although this may be the case in some mstances, .t is perfectly 
iious that cheese, condensed milk. Mexican beans, wh.ch h 
.eavel is sure to get. and many other articles, were ^^^^^l^y 
end of six months and even so repugnant that it would be necessary 
to hire some one to cart them away. ... i j^j 

%ktk : Not only should there be ='<1<''--\«J— ^^^df 
warehLes, but to oblige the merchants to -^^^^^^^f^T^o 
regardless of their convenience, would force many of them mto 
bankruptcy, inasmuch as they were doing business on compara- 
t^LIn capital and could not afford to pay the customs dut.s 
on their goods until such time as the goods had been sold^ It is, 
herefore.%posed that in addition to the creation of -..e govern- 
ment bonded warehouses, under Section A. under Sect.on B th 
rx'stine law be put in force permitting merchants to set as.de under 
p^Lprr'restTictions. bonded warehouse space in their own warehouses^ 
This will make it possible for merchants to remove goods m bond 
llL own bonded storerooms to be "sealed" there. They could 
then carry the goods in bond until such time as they were sold and 
Sd'wn for 'consumption. In conversation with varrous mer- 
chants this revision was made a special appeal. 

Ninth: On. of the principal arguments made repeatedly was that 
the merchant could not move anything anyway because of strikes 
The other persistent argument was that there was no place to pu 
the goods, if removed. . . . However, our investigation showed that 
if the merchants were forced to take the goods they could find a 
great deal more space than they claimed, but. of course, at a higher 
expense to themselves than existing private wharf rates. . . . 

Tenth: Article 116 of the Customs Regulations provides that, if 
goods are not removed at the end of a certain time, usually 5 days, 
they may be seized by the customs officers and put in general stores. 
In order to force the merchants to make use of the guedan once 
granted, it is agreed that, if they do not exercise the Prm lege 
Lnted in the guedan, at the end of 48-hour period. Article 
1,6 would apply and the goods would be seized and put m general 

Stores. - 

Paragraphs ii and 12 were the chief bones of contention. 

Dating from the days when the facilities of a port were m excess 



CLEARING THE WHARVES 



271 



of its commerce, it has been the custom to permit merchants to allow 
their goods to remain on the wharves at the exceedingly low storage 
rate of about 9 cents per 100 kilos per month. (The Government 
wharves have a charge of 3 to 7 cents per 100 kilos per day to force 
removal.) At the low rate it was cheaper to use the wharves as 
storage warehouses than to take the merchandise to warehouses. It 
was necessary, under the circumstances, to devise a punitive charge 
on goods and store them in some other place in order to leave the 
wharf free for the transit handling of goods to be loaded or dis- 
charged. 

Paragraph 11. — The point is the same, namely, that at the 
expiration of the free time, under the customs regulations, the 
customs authorities will seize the goods and remove the same to a 
Government warehouse, the expense being charged to the merchan- 
dise. This charge, in the Government warehouse, and also the 
charge against the goods for removing them, will be a punitive rate 
that will force the merchants to remove their goods from the wharves 
at once. . . . The hope was expressed, however, first, that the 
merchant would not leave very much to be removed, which is the 
end desired and not the collection of revenue ; and, second, that the 
Government would succeed in finding sufficient warehouse space to 
which goods could be removed, thus relieving the wharves. Natu- 
rally there is an outcry from the merchants that their privilege of 
leaving the goods on the wharves at low rates is being interfered 
with. The entire approach to this subject by the committee was: 
First, that it should be made very easy for a merchant to get his 
goods ; and, second, that if he did not get them and take them away 
he should bear heavy consequences. It is believed that if the mer- 
chants find it is to their great disadvantage to leave goods on the 
wharves they will find places where their merchandise may be stored. 
In my opinion, the entire functioning of any port revolves around 
these two points : First, make it absolutely necessary for a merchant 
to remove his goods from the transit wharves within a brief period 
by placing heavy punitive charges against him if he does not do it ; 
and, second, make it as easy as possible to get his goods over the 
wharves and through the customhouse. Port efficiency, the attain- 
ment of a maximum tonnage movement for every linear foot of 
developed water front, depends upon the proper equipment and 
regulations. 






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[^ .v^ 









'272 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 

Removal of Goods from Wharves at Philadelphia 



With further reference to the necessity of keeping freight moving 
on the wharves in order to prevent congestion, a contribution is made 
by the Hon. George S. Webster, while Director of Wharves, Docks, 
and Ferries of the Port of Philadelphia. Again, it seems more perti- 
nent to quote from actual examples than to discuss the question 
from the academic standpoint. The particular point to note m this 
report is the fact that comparatively little freight can be removed 
from the piers or wharves during the working of the vessel ; also the 
relatively small amount of pier space that can actually be used for 
the storage of freight. The writer, in Ports and Terminal Facilities. 
calculated an average required floor space for wharf transit sheds to 
be 10 square feet for each cargo ton of the largest vessel using the 
wharf. It will be noted that the average floor space actually used at 
the wharves investigated by Mr. Webster was over 13 square feet. 
This can easily be explained. In the academic study, based, as it 
was, on European wide quays and transit sheds, it was found that 
with these transit sheds constructed 150 to 200 feet wide, only 10 

square feet were necessary. 

In the cases reported by Mr. Webster the wharf space is entirely 
too small to accommodate all the cargo. The amount of trucking 
space, aisles, etc., in relation to the total capacity of the pier is 
larger than in an adequate shed. Almost as many aisles are required 
on a pier 75 feet wide as on a pier 150 feet wide-the increased floor 
area being a clear gain to the storage space of the cargo. With this 
in mind, the report of Mr. Webster assumes particular interest. It 
must be borne in mind, however, that conditions vary from port to 
port and from wharf to wharf at each port as to the percentage of 
cargo removed from or delivered to the wharf by railroads, lighters, 
drays, electric trucks, and other devices. 
Mr. Webster's report ^ follows : 

I hereby submit the following report of investigation of the 
freight handled on Piers 19, 24, 25, and 27 North, from steamships 
Carthaginian, Ancona. Snowden Range. Sloderdijk, and America, 



• Reoort of investigation of freight handled on piers 19, ^4, 25, and 27 
North rssubmhted by Assistant Engineer of Department of Wharves, 
Docks, and Ferries under date of June 19, i9»2. 



v 



CLEARING THE WHARVES 



273 



The freight is handled at the above piers to and from the ship 
by stevedores, on a price per ton basis, which probably accounts for 
the fact that the freight is, in general, loosely piled on the pier, also 
that the driveways for teams are restricted, in some cases to 8 feet 
in width, and generally there are no turn-outs except the openings 
kept open for the purpose of working the ship's hatches. 

Where the freight is of a nonperishable character, few teams, 
and, in general, none are allowed on the pier for the purpose of 
removing freight while discharging or loading a vessel, as they 
interfere with that work. 

Weight of a ton taken is 2,240 pounds. This, I am informed, 
is the weight used by the steamship companies. 

The following is a record of freight handled during the period 
of investigation: 

Steamship Carthaginian from Glasgow arrived at the north side 
of Pier 19 North on April 26, 1912. Gross tonnage, 6,096; capacity, 
6,000 tons. Length, 386 feet ; beam, 45 feet ; draft loaded, 25 feet 
6 inches; hatches, 4. Reported cargo, 1,800 tons; by calculation, 

1,612 tons. 

The regular berth for this ship is the south side of Pier 24 
North, but as the greater part of that pier was occupied by outbound 
freight the remaining available space would not accommodate all of 
the inbound freight, and a portion of it was discharged on the north 

side of Pier 19 North. 

The inbound freight discharged at Pier 19 was burlap, furniture, 
hides, spiegeleisen, wool waste, potatoes, and potash. That discharged 
on Pier 24 was fish, beef, fertilizer, and potatoes. The outbound 
freight on Pier 24 was mainly flour in sacks. 

The inbound freight was loosely piled on both piers. A drive- 
way, average width 10 ft., entire length of both piers; truck way 
along car pits (on Pier No. 19, 5 ft. 6 in. wide) on both sides of 
Pier No. 24, 7 ft. 6 in. wide; 4 openings for hatches 20 by 30 feet 
on each pier, and a number of lateral truck ways through freight, 
cut the available floor space from 30,800 sq. ft. for Pier No. 19 and 
58,000 sq. ft. for Pier No. 24, a total of 88,800 sq. ft., to about 
22,000 sq. ft. for Pier No. 19 and 34,000 sq. ft. on Pier No. 24, a 
total of 56,000 sq. ft. The difference of 56,000 sq. ft. available and 
48,520 sq. ft. actually covered was used in the case of Pier No. 19 by 
left-over inbound freight, and in the case of Pier No. 24 with out- 
bound freight that was not taken. Time of unloading, 3 days; 
loading, 4 days ; total time in port, 7 days. Time of moving freight 



i1 




274 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 




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276 



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from Pier No. 19, 7 days; Pier No. 24, 6 days. No inbound 
freight removed from piers until all freight was discharged from 
ship. 

Average number of teams on piers at one time : First day 5» 
waiting 1 1 ; second day 5, waiting 4. 

Steamship Ancona from Geneva and Naples arrived at the south 
side of Pier No. 19 North on April 27, 1912. Gross tonnage, 10,000 ; 
capacity, 5,400 tons ; length, 480 feet ; beam, 58 feet ; draft loaded, 
28 feet; cargo reported, 550 tons. The inbound freight discharged 
was vermuth, olive oil (in cases and barrels), wine, orris root, 
macaroni, etc. The outbound freight was oil, cotton, scrap rubber, 
tobacco, rags, etc. 

Delivered to ship from lighters, 579 tons ; total outbound freight, 
611 tons; total inbound freight, 626 tons. This freight did not 
cover the south of the pier. Maximum height of freight, 9 feet 
(macaroni units of about 25 pounds), the minimum, 2 feet 6 inches 
(oil in barrels on side). 

Steamship Sloderdijk arrived at south side of Pier 27 North on 
May 2, 1912; 6 hatches. This ship did not discharge her entire 
cargo at Pier 27, owing to lack of space. Total cargo reported, 3,400 
tons; discharged at Pier 27, 2,850 tons; remainder, 350 tons taken 
to South Wharves ; no outbound freight taken from pier. The 
freight discharged was cotton bales, cluice (cases), hides (bales), 
peat moss (bales), rice, starch, waste (bales), wood pulp (bales), 
alkali (hogsheads), clay (hogsheads), coffee (bags), fish (barrels), 
glycerin (tanks), etc. 

The freight discharged on the second deck was light and bulky, 
consisting of cotton, peat moss, starch, waste, and wood pulp; that 
on the first deck, fish, glycerin, lumber, wine, coffee, tobacco, etc. 
The freight on the bulkhead was entirely fish and oil in barrels. 

Time of unloading, 20 hours. No teams permitted on pier while 
unloading. Time of removal of freight from pier, 6 working days. 

Steamship Snowden Range from Leith arrived at Pier 25 North 
on May 5, 1912. The gross tonnage and capacity could not be 
obtained, but the following measurements were taken: length, 336 
feet 5 inches; width, 47 feet; draft loaded 21 feet, light 9 feet 6 
inches; 5 hatches; reported cargo, 2,800 tons, cargo by calculation, 
2,857 ^^"s. Ninety per cent of this freight was potatoes; balance 
burlap an3 fish in cases. No outbound freight taken from this pier. 



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CLEARING THE WHARVES 



279 



the entire floor space being occupied with inbound. The ship was 

required to move to another pier up the river for her outbound cargo. 

This freight, being mainly potatoes in sacks of 168 pounds, was 

piled compactly. 

The average driveway for teams was 1 1 feet. The total floor 
space of pier, exclusive of i-track car pit, was 44,000 sq. ft., but 
this was reduced by driveway, truck passages, and offices to about 
31,000. Time of unloading, 35 hours; time of removing freight 
from pier, 8 working days. 

Steamship America from Geneva and Naples arrived at south 
side of Pier No. 19 North on May 9, 1912; 3 hatches. Gross 
tonnage, 9,000; capacity 5,025 tons, length 500 feet, beam 56 feet 
5 inches, draft loaded 26 feet, light 17 feet; reported cargo, 350 
tons; calculated, 339 tons. About 60 per cent of this freight was 
macaroni, the balance cheese, crushed granite in bags, glycerin, olive 
oil, and tomato paste in cases. 





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80 



SUMMARY 
Inbound Freight 

Total 8429 tons 

Removed from pier while vessels discharging 429 tons 

Remained on piers until vessels finished discharging. . . 8000 tons 

Floor space occupied by freight on piers 108,302 sq. ft. 

Volume of space occupied by freight on piers 626,460 cu. ft. 

Average height occupied by freight on piers 5.8 ft. 

Floor space per ton occupied by freight on piers 13-5 sq. ft. 

Volume per ton occupied by freight on piers 78.3 sq. ft. 

Removed from pier by teams 66.5 per cent 

Removed from pier by cars 33 per cent 

Removed from pier by lighters 0.5 per cent 

Outbound 

Total 5026 tons 

Delivered from lighters over ship*s side 2364 tons 

Loaded on ship from pier, while discharging 406 tons 




LI it 



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J' I 

I! 



! 



280 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

Remained on piers until vessel finished discharcinR • 2356 tons 

Floor space occupied by freight on piers when finished ^^^ ^^ ^^ 

discharging •. ,* ' * V "•' u* j* J:V 

Volume occupied by freight on piers when fi^^^^^d^.s- ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^ 

AvtrYgTL'ight 'occupied by 'freight on piers when ^^^^ 

finished discharging ; ' *; * : V *• u ' ' 

Floor space per ton occupied by freight on piers when ^^ ^^ ^^ 

finished discharging ••••/•;•• •* ul * 

Volume per ton occupied by freight on piers ^^\^en 55 ^^^ ft. 

finished discharging j. ^^^^ 

Delivered at pier by teams ^^ p^^ ^g^^ 

Delivered at pier by cars. ^^^^ 

Delivered at ship's side by lighters ^' »- 

The inbound cargoes investigated were a fair average of the 
general class of inbound freight, except that there were "^ore pota- 
toes received during this time than ordinarily. However the potatoes 
were found to weigh 30 pounds per cubic foot as P^^^^ J 5^^^^^ 
and to occupy about 74 cubic feet per ton. They were piled, on aa 
average, about 6 feet high. The greater part of them was moved by 
teams? which increased the removal by teams to 66 per cent of the 
total inbound freight, whereas 50 per cent is a fairer average. 

The average removal by cars is 50 per cent. A very snriall quan- 
tity of freight is removed by lighters. The outbound freight mvesti- 
gated was not sufficient to give fair averages However, from 
Observation, I estimate 50 per cent is delivered directly over the 
ship's side from lighters, 30 per cent by cars, and 20 per cent by 
teams over the pier to the ship. . 

The following conditions are apparent from this mvestigation. 
There is but a small percentage of freight removed from the piers 
while the stevedores are working a vessel, either loading or dis- 
charging. This is due to the arrangement of the piers, whereby the 
teams are driven on the same deck over which the freight is trucked 
by hand to and from the ship, and, of course, with teams on the 
piers, the trucking is seriously interfered with and the ship s depar- 
ture delayed; in the other case, the freight remains untd the teanris 
are admitted to remove it, which delays the removal of the freight 
from the piers one to three days. Furthermore, if the teams had 
free access to the freight as soon as the ship commenced discharging, 
in most cases a considerable percentage of freight would be moved 
before that work was finished, which would effect a saving ot 

floor space. o 

The average height of freight is 6 feet ; volume per ton, 78 cu. 
ft.; floor space per ton. 13 feet. This indicates that the average 



CLEARING THE V^HARVES 



281 



weight per cubic foot is 28 lbs., and with the average height of 6 
feet we have 170 lbs. per sq. ft. of floor surface. Thus the piers are 
loaded to about 50 per cent of their efficiency. The only means to 
increase the efficiency in this direction would be to increase the 
height of freight, but the average of 6 feet appears to be the 
economical height with manual labor. Therefore, to increase the 
efficiency of the piers, it is necessary that the freight be handled by 
mechanical means. If a practical overhead device could be installed, 
the efficiency of piers could be increased by increasing the height of 
freight and by decreasing the area now required by hand trucks. 

As this investigation has been rather brief and confined to a small 
number of piers, I do not claim that the figures submitted represent 
an accurate average of the entire freight handled at the Port of 
Philadelphia, but rather approximate averages. A more thorough 
investigation, embracing other piers and ships, may change the 
figures slightly, due to diflterent arrangements. 

The subject of the cost of handling freight was not touched in 
this investigation. A study of this subject would allow a compari- 
son between manual labor and mechanical means for handling 
freight. If a practical overhead device could be installed, the 
efficiency of piers could be increased by increasing the height of 
freight and by decreasing the area required by hand trucks. 

In my opinion, from this investigation, there is derived but a 
small percentage of the total efficiency of the piers. 



11 



i^ill 



: I 



I 



CHAPTER XV 

DELIVERY OF MERCHANDISE FROM THE WHARF' 

Delivery from Wharf to Drays 

Cartage Delays.-The handicap placed upon American business, 
both domestic and foreign, by cartage congestion at wharves, parucu- 
larly at the piers in New York, is illustrated by the quotations that 
follow from correspondence between the writer and certam well- 
known importing and exporting houses of New York. 

Letter No. l, from W. & G., Commission Merchants : 

I inclose, as you suggest, a list of shipments we made during 
the month of December, showing overtime of 55 hours after 6 
I'clock P.M. on the different piers. The list mcludes the names of 
concerns for whom the merchandise was shipped [deleted and num- 

'^m't^ml' hours do not in themselves indicate the number 
of hours our trucks spent on the piers awaitmg unloadmg, but merely 
cover the hours spent after 6 o'clock. Many of these trucks have 
reached the docks as early as ,0 o'clock in the mornmg and remained 
here until 10 and 12 o'clock at night, and where they have reached 
the docks as late as 4 o'clock in the afternoon, they have, m a few 
Instances, been compelled to wait until the early hours of the 

"""t^nu%.i to furnish you with any further details that 
will aid you in correcting the evil. 

Letter No. 2, from G. B. & Co. : 

Of almost equal importance at the present time is the question 
of a system of terminals to which points all freight could be 
consigned for reshipment. With conditions as they are to-day, he 
expense involved in bringing all packages to warehouse for the 



By R. S. MacElwec. 






DELIVERY OF MERCHANDISE FROM THE WHARF 283 

Overtime on Export Shipments 



Firm 


Shipped 


Pier 


Hours 


I 


Dec. 2, 1919 


Pier 33 Brooklyn 


2 


2 


Dec. 2, 1919 


Pier 15 Hoboken 


3 


3 


Dec. 3, 1919 


Pier 45 Brooklyn 


3 


4 


Dec. 3, 1919 


Pier 63, N. R. 


I 


5 


Dec. 3, 1919 


Pier 9 N. R. 


I 


6 


Dec. 3, 1919 


Hoboken 


2 


7 


Dec. 4, 1919 


Pier 9 N. R. 


2 


8 


Dec. 6, 1919 


Pier 2 Bush D. 


} « 


9 


Dec. 6, 1919 


Pier 2 Bush D. 


10 


Dec. 8, 1919 


Pier 42 N. R. 


I 


II 


Dec. 8, 1919 


Pier 13 E. R. 


4 


12 


Dec. 9, 1919 


I Bush Docks 


^ 


IS 


Dec. 9, 1919 


I Bush Docks 




14 


Dec. 9, 1919 


I Bush Docks 


1 ^ 


15 


Dec. 9, 1919 


I Bush Docks 




16 


Dec. 9, 1919 


I Bush Docks 


d 


17 


Dec. ID, 1919 


I Bush Docks 


2 


18 


Dec. 18, 1919 


17 Hoboken 


I 


19 


Dec. 22, 1919 


13 E. R. 


5 


20 


Dec. 23, 1919 


2 Empire St. 


I 


21 


Dec. 24, 1919 


3 Empire St. 


} ' 


22 


Dec. 24, 1919 


3 Empire St. 


23 


Dec. 24, 1919 


31 N. R. 


4 


24 


Dec. 26, 1919 


34 Atlantic Docks 


3 


25 


Dec. 27, 1919 


Bush 3 


4 


26 


Dec. 27, 1919 


17 Brooklyn 


I 


27 


Dec. 27, 1919 


3 Bush Docks 


I 



purpose of determining whether they are properly packed, and in 
holding them pending the sailing of steamers, is a very large one, 
frequently all out of proportion to the value of the merchandise 
shipped. We have very often found this to be the case when it 
comes to such goods as cheap glassware or woodenware and bulky 
toys. Frequently a barrel of glassware does not cost more than $10, 
whereas the lowest possible charge for carting the goods to the 
warehouse and, later on, from warehouse to steamer amounts to $1.50 
alone, that is, quite aside from the handling charges and warehouse 
expenses, which often aggregate as much as 30 and 35 per cent of 
the value of the merchandise itself. This has been a very sore point 
with many of our export customers ; in fact, it is hurting business. 
The creation of terminals would, of course, greatly reduce these 
charges. 

Another matter, which has been quite serious of late, is that 
teams are kept waiting on the docks so long before they can discharge 



282 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



284 

their loads. While I have not any remedy to suggest, I do not wish 

to fail to bring the point to your attention. 

In another letter dated, May 20, 1920, some actual examples 
are given : 

It has been our experience that, while the actual cartage and 

arayage costs are high, it ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ J inlnt On 
straw that breaks the camel s back, so to speaK. ror 
jinuary 7 we delivered 126 packages to a certam Ime m New York 
on whkh the truckage was $58.40. on which the overume was $54 

^''onTanuary >7 we forwarded ,7 packages to another line in this 

^^The-:r;:s;r e-nr;^^^^^^^^^ ^ - - 

;• .\.,T0e^ verv often amount to more than the truckage 
overtime charges very oncu 1 u„.r-i from our cus- 

L w. «,;11 rite vou a few excerpts ot letters irom oui 

charges. We w.U "'* J"" * J^ understand is always 

tomers m regard to cartage charges, wnicn y factory" or 

added to our invoices, our merchandise being sold f.o.b. factory 

"f.o.b. house." 

"Re^ardine your charge of $50.40 for overtime due to delay of 
truck at'; ew/hihly appreciate your good desire to give attention 
toward us buTin this particular case you understand it .s impos- 
s^Tfor ;s to allow this charge, and. therefore, cannot recognize 
the charge." 

Another letter from an export company in New York: 
"In regard to your charge of November 24. $15. and November 
,8 $2Vwe have invoices covering these items. However, we have 
Z as UTseen fit to pass same to the credit of your account. I 
rn:\rusV out|the.rdmary c^^^^^^^^^^^ -^sZlT^; 

an overhead expense rather than a trucking charge. 

As there is keen competition in all our lines, as well as in others, 
exp™ oV manu^^^^^^^ merchandise are unable to include in 
Zr Quotations a leeway to cover cartage or packing, and inland 
Whrcha r^^ and all o'ur orders are taken subject to these charges 
Somft m^ tL; are high and sometimes they are low, but in a grea 
many cases where they ar.e high customers simply deduct these 
Targes, and we can safely say 80 per cent of our export claims are 



DELIVERY OF MERCHANDISE FROM THE WHARF 285 

due to this matter of excessive charge on cartage and drayage, which 
wc must pass on to the customer, or else very often lose our own 
profit. 

Another example of a shipment amounting to $466.31, for San 
Juan, P. R. ; the truckage charge was $8.60 ; the overtime was $19.20. 

Another shipment for Mayaguez, P. R. ; insured value of mer- 
chandise, $600; overtime cartage charge, $50.40. 

As said before, it is the overtime that is the bad feature of this, 
and in our opinion it is due to insufficient dock and terminal facili- 
ties. Our customers do not hesitate paying the usual and fair charge 
for cartage from our house to pier, but when our trucks must stand 
in line sometimes for 36 hours, in order to make this shipment 
possible it naturally seems unreasonable to the customer, and is the 
cause of all these aggravating claims. 

We recently have been shipping a lot of merchandise through 
New Orleans, and the charges from that port have been very much 
lower than from New York, due to the terminal facilities of that city. 

Relief through a Store-door Delivery System. — The relief 
for cartage congestion is some uniform trucking system combined with 
store-door delivery. By "store-door delivery" is meant the applica- 
tion of the letter-carrier principle to incoming package freight, par- 
ticularly less than carload lots. In larger towns the population 
would not think of going to the post office and standing in line 
to get their letters ; yet, this is exactly what we have forty thousand 
or more trucks doing in New York every day. There should be 
some system of delivery by which the packages would be carried to 
the door of the consignee at once upon arrival, thus clearing the 
wharves more rapidly and relieving the congestion caused by many 
half-empty trucks waiting to pick up their various pieces of freight. 
One of the prime movers in the agitation for store-door delivery has 
been G. F. Hichborn, General Traffic Manager of the United States 
Rubber Company. This method is briefly described in the following 
report : 

The committee upon store-door delivery of the Federal Highway 
Council Convention at Akron, Ohio, of which the writer is chairman, 
submitted the following findings : ^ 

Mr. Beck, of Bahimore Merchants' Association, read a paper upon 
s'ore-door delivery, before the meeting of the Federal Highway Council in 
New York, December 10, 1920, that may be had from the Council. This is 
the best presentation to that date. 



I 

1 

^1 . 



I 



t 



286 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

Report of the Subcommittee on Store-door Delivery 
Mr. Chairman, the subcommittee wishes to report as follows: 

In submitting this to you, however, I wish informally to express 
the opinion of the committee that, providing this report be accepted, 
the committee be kept intact in order to go further and make a more 
lengthy report upon this matter. 

Preamble 

In many cities traffic has outgrown the freight terminal facilities. 
Methods must be found for more intensive use of existing facilities 
by handling more shipments per day over the same platforms. 

Recommendations 

It is therefore suggested by the committee that that part of 
terminal congestion caused by cartage difficulties, may be relieved 
by the inauguration of some system of immediate delivery to the 
consignee of incoming freight. 

This may be accomplished by the following plan : 

The municipal area should be divided into zones of delivery. 

The shipper will be required to mark the package and shipping 
papers with the street address of the consignee. The railroad agent 
at point of origin will add the zone, from a guide book supplied for 
the purpose. 

Where the delivering carrier has two or more stations in the area, 
the station nearest the zone in which the delivery will fall will be 
designated. Goods upon arrival will be unloaded at the designated 
station. 

The freight house at destination will be divided into sections 
corresponding with the zones of the city and freight on arrival will 
be placed in these sections, grouped according to blocks in the zone 
and ready for delivery to the tracks. 

The freight terminal will be served by a single consolidated 
trucking service, whose trucks will travel over prescribed routes. 

No outside trucks will be permitted to call at L. C. L. platforms. 

As trucks arrive they will be fully loaded and immediately 
dispatched. 

All freight charges as indicated by the railroads, and also cartage 
charges, will be collected from the consignee by the consolidated 



/I 



DELIVERY OF MERCHANDISE FROM THE WHARF 287 

trucking service. For this collection the consolidated trucking service 
shall give a bond satisfactory to the railroad companies. 

A reasonable tariff of charges for delivery should be published 
and filed with the proper authorities. The rate should be commen- 
surate with the service, calculated for each zone, and such rates 
would be similar for all terminals within each zone. The cartage 
charges should be in addition to the freight rate. 

So far as possible, mechanical means should be installed for the 
handling, loading and dispatching of the trucks. 

The above deals entirely with less-than-carload freight, and it 
is the thought of the committee that carload freight be not considered 
at this time. 

After once establishing the inbound trucking service to the 
consignee, a further study should be made for the pick-up freight 

service for outbound shipping. 

{Signed) R. S. MacElwee, Chairman, 

In conclusion, it would seem that one of the principal problems 
confronting all wharf administration to-day is the question of 
cartage and the rapid delivery of freight to the cart, in order to 
relieve the wharf and also to reduce the terminal expense. Whether 
this expense be borne by the wharf operator, the steamship line, or 
the shipper, it all weighs upon American foreign trade and makes 
American business less able to compete in foreign markets. The 
prosperity of the steamship line in the end depends upon the move- 
ment of freight, and this movement of freight depends upon Ameri- 
can competitive ability in the foreign market. It is, therefore, 
decidedly the problem of the wharf superintendent to see that all 
expenses, whether borne by his organization or not, are reduced to 
the minimum. 

Delivery from Wharf to Railroad Car 

In every port a large proportion of incoming freight is delivered 
from the wharf to railroad cars. At New York the lack of a harbor 
belt-line railway is met by the lighterage system. Although the 
lighterage system necessitates a rehandling of the goods between 
the railroad car and the lighter and is, therefore, very expensive, for 
the present it is a substitute for a belt railroad and does afford 
flexibility in the connection between every .wharf and every railroad 



,1 



288 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



I't 



system. In a thoroughly modern port, however, there should be a 
belt-line railroad that would make it possible to switch freight cars, 
loaded or unloaded, between any wharf and any railroad serving 
the port. If the port is laid out on the pier system, a good example 
are the piers at the Norfolk Army Supply Base and at Philadelphia. 
At these points the piers are made double width and the spur tracks 
extend down the center of the pier. This makes it possible to truck 
freight a short distance to and from the assembling piles and the 
door of the box car on the inshore side of the pier deck. 

This delivery may be by hand truck, trailer truck, electric lift 
platform truck, by gravity roller conveyors, or by portable belt 
conveyors. The movement between car and pile on the pier is 
entirely similar to the movement between the pile on the pier and 
the picking-up point at ship's side. Car loading, however, is not 
quite so important a process as stowing a ship, yet it requires care. 
Consider, therefore, that the pier is of the Philadelphia type or of 
the quay system, with the car track opposite the ship and the transit 
shed between. It will be found that in delivering freight to the 
pier it is impossible to drill railroad cars in and out of the pier and 
discharge them as fast as the ship can load. Conversely, it will 
also be found that a ship can discharge much more rapidly than the 
freight cars can be loaded and removed from the point where they 
are spotted across from the ship. There must always be taken into 
consideration the reservoir principle of the transit shed. Freight 
from railroad cars must be assembled in advance of the loading of 
the ship ; also the delivery of freight to the cars will not usually be 
directly from the ship's hatch across the wharf. 

In most wide piers or quays the side of the transit shed opposite 
the ship is served by both the railroad track and a road for drays. 
There results an inevitable interference between railroad freight and 
cartage freight. This is avoided by delivering to carts during the 
day working hours and to railroad cars during evening or extra- 
time hours. At the terminal in Cleveland, Ohio, the lake vessels 
discharge their cargo into the transit sheds on the pier; these are 
served by a wide street and railroad tracks down the center of the 
pier. In this particular case the drays for local delivery receive 
their freight during working hours until 5 o'clock in the afternoon. 

A still better layout would be with team platforms at the 
bulkhead and trailer truck or telpher service between the pier and 



DELIVERY OF MERCHANDISE FROM THE WHARF 289 

bulkhead for team loading, leaving the car tracks in the center of 
the pier entirely for railroad freight at all times. 

Loading Box Cars.— The correct loading for box cars is a 
matter that requires considerable study. The suggestions and dia- 
grams furnished by the American Sugar Refining Company arc 
quoted herewith in extenso. Although these instructions do not cover 
all classes of freight they show the loading of box cars with various 
types of containers and should be suggestive of the more complete 
study and better general methods of delivering freight from the 
wharf to the car. 

General Instructions 

Car \,o^6AXig— Selection of Cdrj.— Sugar must be loaded in per- 
fectly tight, dry, and clean cars. Cars with end doors, end windows 
or ventilators must be thoroughly protected around openings with 
waterproof paper and boards. 

Cars with double side doors may be used for loading barrels and 
cases, rejecting those where door strips cannot be applied. Refrig- 
erator and produce cars may be used for barrels and cases, but only 
those that are absolutely free from odor and when openings are 
thoroughly protected. 

Inspection. — Cars must be thoroughly inspected for defects in 
roof, sides, ends, doors, floors and fastenings. Protruding nails 
must be removed. Sweep all cars and eliminate every evidence of 
dirt, oil, acid, moisture or other conditions which are likely to 
damage sugar. If any unfavorable conditions prevail that cannot 
be overcome with suitable dunnage, reject the car. 

Distribution of Load. — No truck of any car should carry more 
than one-half of the marked capacity plus 10 per cent for overload. 
The lading must be so placed that there will not be more weight on 
one side of the car than on the other. 

Dunnage. — Dunnage boards, where required, must be of the 
necessary length, not less than one inch thick and five inches wide. 

Cleats, where required, must not be less than 2 by 4 by 8 inches, 
of sound material and secured by four 3-inch nails. When necessary 
to nail cleats to lining of box cars having steel superstructure with- 
out exterior siding, the nails must not be driven entirely through 
the lining of the car. 



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290 



DELIVERY OF MERCHANDISE FROM THE WHARF 29. 

Chocking cleats, where required, must be of 2 by 6 inches, 
straSfg«Ld. so^nd material, .0 inches long with cut-out 2 by 
Ses to receiU end of chocking board, placedw.th cut-out toward 
back of car and secured with six 3-inch nails (Fig. 8»). 
'if facilities are not at hand for cutting this cleat a subs .tu^e 
„,ay be used consisting of plain cleats 2 by 4 by 6 ^-f^^^-^^^. 
which the chocking board must be secured. In front of upper anQ 
Tower clei:' nail \ protecting strip 2 by 4 by .8 inches, secured by 

"' SockinT 'material, where required, must be of straight-grained 
sound lumber, not less than 2 by 6 inches and of necessary length^ 

Door strips, where required, must be of stra.ght-gramed sound 
lumber, not less than 1 inch thick by 6 inches wide, with 3-nch 
ap on door post secured by three 3-inch nails, each end of str.p 
naUed to inside of door post, placed sufficiently close to floor of ca 
and to each other to prevent lading from falling or roUmg out of 
car or coming in contact with door. , ^ .... 

Dunnage paper, known as weather-proof rosm-s.zed building or 
rag sheathing paper, where required, must be of sufficient weight 
and thickness fully to protect lading against absorption of moisture 

or contamination. „ , .• r« .» 

Assorted Car Loading and Less than Car Loading.-l>w to 
variations in size of orders and dimensions of cars, it will be neces- 
sary at times to work out slight changes in the methods set forth. 
Otherwise assorted car loading and less than car loading must follow 
standard methods hereinafter shown for each kind of package. 
Containers and cases must be loaded at end of car, followed by 
bags or sacks, placing barrels through center in a manner to be 
"self-chocking." Packages of dimensions other than those illus- 
trated must be loaded to conform to standard methods (Figs. 89, 

qo, and 90" , , •, o • 

Barrel Loading.— B^nels must not be rolled on bilge. Stowing 

in cars must be on heads only, in all tiers. Barrels of powdered or 
cube sugar must not be placed in first tier under heavier barrels 

when second tier is necessary. 

Bag or Sack Loading.— Keep bags or sacks away from sides and 
doorways. Floors and ends of cars must be covered with dunnage 
paper. If doors do not close tight, protect by nailing a door strip at 
floor. Hooks must not be used in handling bags or sacks (Fig. 92). 



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296 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 






A ,, 
• i ii 



Case Loading. — Cases must not be loaded on end or sides except 
where necessary to turn one row of top layer to act as chocking. If 
car doors do not close tight, protect by door strip at floor. 

Container Loading.— Floors, sides and ends of cars must be 
protected by dunnage paper. Load containers with sealed end in 
horizontal position, piling true and even to prevent cutting or 
crushing of edges and corners. 

Load small quantities in assorted cars with same care. 

Solid cars of containers must be protected at doorway, such 
protection extending one foot each side, by a flooring of dunnage 
boards, laid two inches apart, crosswise of car. If car doors do not 
close tight, protect by door strip at floor. Hooks must not be used 
in handling containers. 

Delivery from Transit Shed to Warehouse 

This movement presupposes the proper construction of wharves 
with adjacent warehouses as described in the chapter that follows. 
The adjacent or water-front warehouse is a comparatively new 
development in American port design. It is obvious that the dis- 
tances from wharf to warehouse are too great for economical truck- 
ing by man power with the small hand truck. As stated above, the 
longer distances are covered better by tractors and trailers, by elec- 
tric lift platform trucks, or by overhead conveyor or man-trolley 
system. 

The construction of the upland warehouse with many stories 
makes the vertical movement as important as the horizontal move- 
ment. In the chapter on "Warehousing" in Ports and Terminal Fa- 
cilities (1918), the writer stated that the interior elevation was uneco- 
nomical compared with the whip-and-fall or winch-and-tackle system 
outside the warehouse. This statement was made before the intro- 
duction of the large platform elevator with an automatic leveling 
device. The writer has based his opinion upon considerable experi- 
ence in the elevator-construction industry prior to the time of the 
invention of this automatic floor-leveling device. The great ware- 
housing systems in Manchester, Liverpool, London, and particularly 
at Hamburg, had all found that interior elevation was uneconomical 
and that the electric winch, with a fall from a projecting beam over 
the doorways of the warehouse, was the most simple and rapid 



DELIVERY OF MERCHANDISE FROM THE WHARF 297 

method. In some cases, for instance where water-side delivery from 
different parts of the harbor is possible and goods come under the 
gable beams of the warehouse in lighters, the drum-and-fall system 
of hoisting to upper floors outside the walls of the building is still to 
be preferred. But where it is possible to load small platforms or 
trailers in the transit shed and tow them by means of some type of 
electric truck directly into the warehouse adjacent to the wharf, the 
interior elevation has become possible through the invention of the 
microleveling elevator. The automatic or microleveling elevator is 
the combination of the push-button control with a secondary auto- 
matic leveling device. The latter consists of a small motor that is 
immediately set in operation and moves the elevators very slowly 
when the platform of the elevator varies more than half an inch from 
the level of the warehouse floor.^ 

A large platform carrying perhaps a tractor and five trailers will 
be dispatched to the desired floor by pushing a button that actuates 
the automatic control. There is nothing new in this, as all Europe 
is supplied with push-button passenger elevators, and many New 
York residences have them. The elevator stops automatically 
approximately level with the floor indicated. If the elevator does 
not exactly register with the floor the elevator platform makes elec- 
tric contact with certain control switches. This closed circuit sets in 
motion a small motor that moves the platform slowly until it reaches 
the floor level, where the contact is broken and the platform makes 
a perfect stop. If a large platform is loaded with a heavy weight the 
ropes will stretch. Formerly with the hand-switch control it was 
necessary for the operator in the elevator to giggle the elevator 
upward and downward to overcome the stretch in the rope. With 
the new device, as soon as the platform settles the contacts are made 
that set the microleveling motor in motion, and this brings the 
platform back to the proper level. Heavily loaded trucks coming 
upon the elevator will sag the rope, yet the adjustment is so rapid 
that before the following truck enters upon the platform the proper 
level will have been reestablished. This system of interior eleva- 
tion by large platform elevators, in connection with the microleveling 
device, has entirely revolutionized the possibilities of water-front 
construction. 

' Full description of the mechanics of this device can be obtained from 
the Otis Elevator Company. 



298 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



The problems of water-front design with proper regard to ware- 
housing and in-transit storage that will make possible a higher 
utilization of water front were discussed in the December, 1920, 
monthly of the American Association of Port Authorities. 






A , 



! 



CHAPTER XVI 

WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 

The following opinions from the best authorities will describe 
warehousing in various details. 

Warehousing 

Requirements of Facilities, -Buildings and floors must be clean 
and dry, free from all liability of damage from floods or contami- 
nation and moisture. All evidence of dirt, filth, oil, acids or other 
substances likely to damage sugar must be removed. 

Barrels, bags, sacks, cases and containers must be handled in a 
manner which will insure their delivery to the purchaser in a clean 

and perfect condition. 

Passageways must be maintained to allow free inspection. 

Each lot, mark, size, brand or kind of package must be stored 
separately as shown on invoices, in order to preserve the identity of 

the shipment. 

Withdrawals.— Ordtxs must be clear and accurate to prevent 
confusion in withdrawing lots, grades, sizes, or kinds of packages. 

Lot numbers specified must be withdrawn as instructed. Never 
substitute other lots (even though of same grade, size or kind of 
package) unless authorized. Complete delivery of the oldest lots 
must be made before beginning withdrawal of new stock, unless 

instructed otherwise. 

Account of Stock.— Vi^on request, the warehouse shall furnish to 
the company a report of the stock on hand, showing each individual 
lot, mark, grade and package, which should agree with the warehouse 

office records. 

Auditors of the company shall have access to the warehouse and 
records to verify the account of stock and for inspection. 

Records must be kept in such a manner that they can be balanced 
without loss of time. 

299 





301 



300 



m 



302 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



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Receipts, — Proper and complete receipts must be obtained from 
transportation companies, draymen or others concerned, fully to 
protect the Company against loss. 

Barrels. — Barrels must not be rolled on bilge. 

Barrels must be set on heads in all tiers. Between each tier place 
two dunnage boards, not less than one inch thick by five inches wide, 
under each barrel. When breaking down from piles, use sliding 
skids or mechanical devices positively to prevent dropping. 

Bags or Sacks. — Great care must be given to the storage of bag 
or sack sugar. Floors must be thoroughly clean and sound, free 
from nails and other projections, and covered with heavy or water- 
proof paper. When these conditions do not prevail, or when floors 
are of concrete, use clean dunnage boards laid on timbers to 
keep bags or sacks free from damage or contamination. Pile in 
orderly manner, cross-tie ends and corners. Sacks containing small 
bags must not be piled higher than ten feet. Do not pile against 
walls or partitions. Hooks must not be used in handling bags or 
sacks. 

Containers. — Use same care and preparation of floors as for bags 
or sacks. Pile only on a level surface. Pile all containers with 
sealed end in horizontal position. Pile true and even to prevent 
cutting or crushing of corners or sides. Do not pile in excess of 
five feet in height. Use heavy paper between alternate layers as a 
binder to hold containers in position. Do not handle in slings. 
Protect bottom layers from damage by trucks by placing boards at 
corners and sides. Hooks must not be used in handling containers. 

Cases. — Cases must not be piled on sides or ends. Do not handle 
in slings or on slides. Do not pile in excess of six feet in height. 

Storage 

NOTES 

1. The instructions which follow are almost in entirety re- 
printed from Storage Committee Bulletin No. 7, written by Henry 
Wood Shelton, Assistant Professor of Business Organization and 
Management at the Amos Tuck School of Administration and 
Finance, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H., and issued by The 
Storage Committee of the War Industries Board, Council of National 
Defense, 5216 New Interior Building, Washington, D. C. 

2. A few additions and some changes in arrangement have been 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 303 

made, but these are so inconsequential that entire credit for these 
storage instructions is due Professor Shelton. 

3. The terms used in stowing have never been generally stand- 
ardized. The meaning of such words as item, lot, unit, tier, block, 
stack, etc., are but vaguely comprehended, largely because of am- 
biguity in their use. The definitions given are offered as one step 
toward a generally recognized nomenclature, necessary for accurate 
instructions. 

DEFINITIONS 

1. Article: Any single piece: e.g., i can, canned corn. No. 2 
size can, xyz brand. 

2. Bin: A receptacle for holding articles, formed of parallel 
shelves— one above the other — divided by vertical partitions. 

3. Bin-insert: A removable frame for subdividing a bin. 

4. Block: A self-supporting regular pile, two or more wide, 
two or more deep, and two or more high. A block may be either 
cubical or pyramidal. 

nn 

DD 

nn 

Cubical block of 100 — stack of 10 (end view) 

nnnnnnnaan 

□nnnnnnnnn 

□nnnnnnnnn 
nnnnnnnnnn 

nnnnnnnnnn 

Cubical block of 100 — 10 stacks (side view) 




I 



It 



304 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

D 
DDD 

nnnn 

Pyramidal block of 100 — 1 stack of 10 (end view) 

nnnnnnnnnn 
nnnnnnnnnn 
nnnnnnnnnn 

nnnnnnnnnn 

pyramidal block of 100 — 10 stacks of 10 (side view) 

5. Bulk-Spaces: The storage space set aside for the bulk of an 
article, and from which supplies are drawn for issue or shipment in 
large quantities, or for replenishment of issue-bins and reserve-bins. 

6. Column: A vertical, self-supporting, regular pile, one wide, 
one deep, two or more high. 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 



305 



n 


D 


1 1 


U 




D 


1 1 


D 


1 


U 


Front view 


Side view 


Column of 5 



7. Course: A horizontal layer of a block (cf. the courses of a 
brick wall). Courses are numbered from the bottom up. 



DD 

DD 
DD 
DD 



nnnnn 

□ nnnn 

nnnnn 
□ nnnn 



DD nnnnn 

End view Side view 

5 courses of 10 each in a cubical block of 50 



nan 
nnnn 



nnnnn 

nnnnn 
nnnnn 
nnnnn 



End view Side view 

4 courses of 20, 15, 10, and ^ respectively in a pyramidal block of 50 

8. Issue-Bins: A bin from which supplies are ordinarily issued 
or assembled for delivery or shipment. 

9. Item: Any one kind of stores to be put in one place, e.g,^ 
canned corn^ No. 2 size cans, xyz brand. Difference in size, shape, 
nature, quality, weight, color, make, brand, or style, will generally 
determine different items. 

10. Lot: A quantity received and stowed at any one time, e,g,^ 
SO cases, 24 in case, canned corn, No. 2 size cans, xyz brand. 

1 1. Pile: A heap, irregular in shape. Regular piles are defined 
under column, stack, and block. 

12. Platform: A level surface parallel to the floor ; a platform 
may be either large or small, high or low, movable or stationary. 
The term platform, therefore, includes all mezzanine floors. 

13. Rack: A framework for holding articles whose principal 






i> 



3o6 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 



307 



't i 



i 



V. 



dimensions are length and width— or length alone— such as metals 
in bars ; metals in sheets, oars, pipe, etc. 

14. Reserve-Bin: A bin in the immediate vicinity of the issue- 
bin, from which the issue-bin draws its stock. 

15. Row: A uniform arrangement of bins or racks extending 
from main-aisle to wall. Rows are single and double. A single 
row is placed against a wall. Double rows are placed back to back. 

i6. Stack: A self-supporting regular pile, two or more wide, 
one deep, two or more high. A stack may be either cubical or 
pyramidal. 



nn 
nn 
nn 

Front view 



□ 
□ 
□ 
□ 
□ 



Side 



view 



Cubical stack of 10 



nn 

nnn 

nnnn 



□ 
□ 



Front view Side view 

Pyramidal stack of 10 

17. Standard-Sample: An article always retained in the issue- 
bin or rack. The standard-sample should carry a tag bearing the 
stock number and the catalogue nomenclature of the article, and 
should never be issued except by written authority of the supply 



officer. New standard-samples should be substituted for old ones 

when required. 

18. Stowing: The putting away of things, usually stores, in 
their proper places according to proper method. As the subject of 
this memorandum, it covers the larger ground of removal and general 
rules for handling. 

19. Tier: Any one separate part of a column, or a horizontal 
row of a stack. Tiers are numbered in the order of their stowing — 
from the bottom up. 

D 
D 
D 

Front view 
5 tiers of 1 each in a column 5 tiers of 2 each in a cubical stack 



n 

nn 

nnn 

nnnn 

Front view 
4 tiers of 4, 3, 2, and 1 respectively in a pyramidal stack 

20. Unit: A quantity easily handled or normally issued at one 
time: e.g.^ Wholesale — i case, 24 in case, canned corn. No. 2 size 
can, xyz brand. Retail — i can, canned corn, No. 2 size can, xyz 
brand. 





1 


1 II 1 


1 1 1 


L 

Front view 



3o8 



m.iA u. 



n I 



I: 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



FUNDAMENTALS 



"A place for everything, and everything properly in place." 
1. Accessibility of items, lots, and units, without rehandling. 
This means: {a) Goods will be stowed in issuable units, {b) Each 
item (and each lot where practicable) will be kept distinct. There- 
fore a unit of one item or lot will not be stowed on top of or in front 
of a unit of a different item or lot. (c) Goods will be placed so that 
the greatest number of individual units or packages will show. This 
facilitates counting, as well as accessibility. 

Issuable Units.— The immediate accessibility of each lot of every 
item only emphasizes in a different way the fundamental general 
purpose of stowing, namely, to get at what you want when you want 
It with the minimum expenditure of time and effort. This means 
that goods should be stowed as nearly as possible in the units in 
which they will be issued, even though this requires the breaking of 
the units in which they are received. This is based on the fact that 
the time element required for unpacking is less important when the 
goods are first received than when they are called for issue. As a 
precaution against unnecessary loss from depreciation, it is obvious 
that the stock should be kept moving by always using the old lots 
first. 

2. Flexibility in Arrangement.— TKis is secured by having stor- 
age spaces rectangular, and in area whole multiples of a standard 
rectangular unit. Bins, platforms, and floor spaces will then be inter- 
changeable. 

Unit Storage Spaces.— In few live organizations are conditions 
the same year after year ; in some, the conditions change materially 
season by season. Hence the importance of flexibility in the arrange- 
ment and use of storage equipment. The determination, even at some 
effort, of a standard rectangular storage unit as the basis for the 
lay-out of the stores plant is a great help in obtaining this flexibility. 
Bms. platforms and floor spaces can then be made to correspond to 
this unit and so be interchangeable. Thus, without affecting in any 
way the general plan and lay-out, the particular equipment in use 
may be shifted to meet varying conditions. 

Bin Subdivisions.-The same principle applies to the subdivi- 
sion of bins and will lead to the adoption of a standard unit bin of 
such mside dimensions that it will hold the greatest variety of 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 



309 



standard removable subdivisions. A bin 20 by 14 by 14 inches 
inside, opening on the first two dimensions, has been proved satis- 
factory for a large proportion of naval supplies. 

Emergency Bins. — For emergency use, bins may be improvised by 
stacking empty packing cases of uniform size back to back. Such 
double rows should preferably run at right angles to the long side 
of the building. 

3. Identification, clear and complete, of every item, which 
means : (a) a tag for each lot ; (b) a label on each unit or package, 
preferably on the end. 

Symbols. — The clear and complete identification of each item is 
equally important. The same item must not be called by different 
names at different times ; furthermore, the name of each item must be 
so distinctive that it cannot be confused with any other. This leads 
in many cases to the careful classification and symbolization of all 
items in stores. The symbol, being short, distinct, and standing for 
only one thing, is a convenient means for the accurate identification 
of stores. 

Marks Face Out. — Identification marks on packages should pref- 
erably face out, or be conspicuous. Therefore the end of the pack- 
age is usually the best place so that when stacked the largest number 
of labels will show, and furnish a check against packages being mis- 
placed. This is especially important where goods are not tagged. 
The labeling of individual packages is not so necessary when lots arc 
systematically tagged and placed in definite locations indicated by 
symbol both on the identification tag and on the balance records. 

4. Location of an item governed by: (a) difficulty of handling; 
(b) quantity to be carried ; (c) frequency of use ; (d) special con- 
siderations, as of sensitiveness, perishability or peculiar similarity to 
other items; (e) safety (floor strength, fire hazard). 

General Considerations. — The elements determining the location 
of an item are sometimes conflicting. Of course, a large, heavy item, 
difficult to handle, should be given the shortest possible haul. Simi- 
larly, an item easy to handle but carried in large quantities and 
very frequently used, should be in a convenient location with short 
haul. The same is true of items which, when issued, have to be 
specially measured, such as bar-stock, or sirup in barrels. 

Special Considerations. — There may be, of course, special con- 
siderations such as the sensitiveness of explosives, the perishability of 
meat or other foodstuff, or peculiar similarity, such as of pipe and 



A 



I i 



■ if 



i 






310 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



i ^',i 



m 

^ 1 



1 



i r 



bar-Stock which would clearly point to the necessity of stowing those 
items together. Whether the location under those circumstances is 
most convenient is generally secondary to the particular equipment 
necessary for their proper care. It is sometimes found economical to 
stow near each other special parts or articles of equipment which are 
regularly issued together in a group. It is also desirable to keep 
unserviceable articles separated from serviceable. 

Safety. — The stresses which floors will stand must of course be 
known and allowed for. Whether fire-passages (of 2 feet) along 
all walls should be left, depends on local conditions and the nature 
of the goods. In general, fire-passages are more necessary with block 
piling, or where stacks run parallel to and adjoin the walls. Fire-pas- 
sages are less necessary when stacks, with side aisles between every 
two, run at right angles to walls. In the latter case, the side aisles 
give direct access to wall space every few feet, and packages next the 
wall in any given stack may be easily and quickly removed. 

5. Methods^ defined in written instructions, of placing and 
removing various classes of items. 

a. Uniformity — always piling the same item the same way, and 
in such a way that each full column, stack or block will contain the 
same quantity as each other full column, stack or block. 

b. Distinct separation of each lot, so that old lot may be used 
first. 

In Writing. — The importance of establishing in writing some 
defined methods of placing and removing the various classes of items 
need not be emphasized. The very effort to determine the methods 
forces attention and decision for the time being, at least, on the 
one best way under the circumstances. More than that, it is true 
that the consistent following of even a poor standard brings better 
results than the haphazard and uncertain following of the best of 
standards. The more completely a poor rule is followed, the 
more clearly will its failings be revealed and the better can it be 
revised. 

Neatness ; Exceptions Conspicuous. — Standard methods for piling 
each class of goods will insure neatness and uniformity. Then the 
exceptions to good piling, by their very conspicuousness, will be their 
own signal for correction. "Publicity is a potent factor in keeping 
things right." Therefore, unnecessary covers, doors, and other 
protections, behind which wrong practice may be concealed, should be 
avoided. 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 



311 



More Accurate Inspection and Count.— Besides leading to preci- 
sion in handling and making carelessness more noticeable, such uni- 
formity greatly facilitates the accuracy and speed of inspection and 
count. So far as possible, stores should indicate their own count. 
Hence the importance of uniformly regular columns, stacks, and 
blocks. This is the chief reason for preferring cubical to pyramidal 
piling. The quantity in a full pyramid may be calculated by mathe- 
matical formula but difficulties are apt to arise as soon as part of the 
pyramid is removed. "How much is left" is an ail-important ques- 
tion and it should not be necessary to count each article to find out. 
Piling in uniformly regular columns, stacks, and blocks, with only 
one last block, stack, column or package containing an odd quantity, 
is the simple solution of this problem. 

Decimal Units. — For the same reason, the use of easily calculated 
decimal units for the quantities in blocks, stacks, columns, and some- 
times packages, is desirable. The instruction specifying that piling 
may be done in single units up to 10 and after that only in multiples 
of 5 illustrates the point. 

Double Space. — The allotment to each regularly carried item of 
double the space needed for each regular lot of the item received is, 
where sufficient space is available, well worth while. It insures ac- 
curacy and simplicity in handling the different lots, each being kept 
separate and the old lot always being used first. It also results in less 
frequent need of locating parts of the same item in different places. 
Where only the single space required for a lot is reserved for it, and a 
new lot comes before the old lot is used up, it is often necessary to 
put part, if not all, of the new lot somewhere else, there being no 
room for it in the space with the old lot. This process, repeated 
often enough, leads to a constant shifting of the location of given 
items and results in confusion. In some cases where the storekeeper 
is responsible for the quantities on hand, he loses sight of some por- 
tions of an item and calls for more before he really needs it. This 
means unnecessary investment and the added liability to loss from 
spoilage. Some plants have found that the cost of the double-space 
system suggested above was well repaid by protection against such 
loss. The less intelligent and skilled the help, the greater is the use- 
fulness of the double space system. It is more nearly "fool-proof." 



f 



fl! 



/■' ' n 



I :i 



312 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



d. 



e. 



6. Planning new areas. 

a. The listing and classification of all items according to: 

1. Measurements. 

2. Difficulty of handling. 

3. Frequency of use. 

4. Special considerations, as of sensitiveness, perisha- 
bility or of peculiar similarity. 

5. Quantities to be carried. 

b. Determination of proper unit storage space. 

c. Determination of proper aisle spaces. 
Determination of proper lay-out of storage and aisle 
space with general location of items and calculation 
of total space needed. 

Lastly, the planning of structures so that entrances, 
aisles, posts, platforms, windows, and other necessary 
features will not interfere with but will facilitate the 
most desirable lay-out of the stores themselves. 

The importance of accomplishing the most with every man-hour 
of labor as well as every dollar of expense is the measure of the 
importance of careful stowing. Hours of labor and dollars of ex- 
pense can be avoided by intelligent planning ahead. The store- 
keeper must predetermine and control his results instead of letting 
conditions take him by surprise and find him unprepared. Where he 
has the planning of new storage areas he will find it pays, for best 
results and a minimum waste of space and operating expense, to ob- 
serve the sequence above. 

7. Spaces, preferably marked, reserved exclusively for 
a. Moving. 

Aisles should preferably be straight, and only wide 
enough for actual requirements. 

b. Stowing. 

c. Receiving. 

When necessary to hold material awaiting disposition. 

d. Assembling. 

When necessary to hold material awaiting delivery. 

e. Shipping. 

When necessary to hold material awaiting shipment. 

Aisles Must Be Kept Clear.— The real reason for taking pains 
that stowing of stores shall be orderly and systematic is to be able to 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 



313 



get at what is wanted when it is wanted, with the least possible 
expenditure of time and effort. This involves having what you 
want on hand in sufficient quantities and knowing where it is. The 
only way of getting at what is wanted is by means of the aisles 
and passageways provided for the purpose. It is axiomatic, there- 
fore, that the aisles should be of only such width as is required for 
the necessary passing and handling of the goods to be stored. It is 
equally fundamental that they cannot be obstructed by things left 
standing in them or by the projection of things stored along their 
margins. The delay caused by unexpectedly encountering a blocked 
aisle is always wasteful,— likewise, the danger of damage to goods 
projecting from the proper bounds of either storage spaces or con- 
veyors is obvious. 

Aisle Widths.— Aisles should be planned according to their use 
and the size of conveyors or materials to be handled in them. Main 
aisles for two-way passing of trucks may need to be six or eight feet, 
or even more in width, according to conditions. Side, connecting 
aisles, or those straight through the building, for one-way pass- 
ing, need be only comfortably wider than the trucks to pass 
through. Blind side aisles, ending in a wall, if for trucking, normally 
should be wide enough to allow the truck to turn around safely. 
This is especially true where four wheel or elevating platform trucks 
are to be used. Thirty inches is a standard width for aisles between 
bins or shelves where the contents are package goods carried by 

hand. 

Boundary Lines. — Showing the boundary lines of aisles and like- 
wise of storage, receiving, assembling, and shipping places is impor- 
tant in order that there may be no vagueness about the limits of the 
spaces required for each. The more permanent and conspicuous these 
boundary lines are made, the better. In buildings, lines two inches 
wide of black or red paint, or of strips of zinc tacked to the floor, 
have been used effectively. The right amount of space in a well 
planned stores layout is essential. More than this amount is waste- 
ful, whereas less than this amount for each particular purpose leads 
inevitably to congestion, and congestion must be avoided. 



INSTRUCTIONS 



Stowing. — 1. Counting.— h\\ goods will be counted before or 
during stowing, and the quantity entered on the tag. 



jl 



3»4 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



2. Storage Space, — Stores are stowed only in the spaces reserved 
for the purpose. This means that window sills, ledges, floors, aisle 



Main 



»«••«•«*••••••••••••••«•«>••••••••••«« 



Old Lot lorigioally occupied all j this row F and (see top line row G) 



Remainder of old Lot 1 occu- 
pies thit half <A Row F 



when new Lot 2 arrives. Lot 2 is 
put io this half of this row F and 



RowB 



Raw P 



Side Aidt 



Aid* 








this half of this row (G Lot 1). 


this fills up all of this row 


G (Lot 2). 







RowO 



RouH 



I 



FrouRE 1 



spaces, etc., arc not to be used either permanently or temporarily for 
keeping goods unless the tag on the goods bears the signature of the 



» 



WaU 



i< 



SidtAifU 10 



} 



Row 



W ''I 



SideAiaU 



Row 
Row 




Figure 2 



! 



proper official authorizing the use of such space for that purpose. 
Tools or equipment in regular use in store rooms will be provided 



\ 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 



315 



* \ 



with special places, marked so as to show the purpose for which 
reserved. 

3. Space for One Item. — The space allotted to any one item will 
be enough to hold the maximum expected on hand at one time, with 
each lot distinct. If the normal lot would occupy 1^ rows, and 
usually arrives when one-third of the previous lot (or 3^ row) is 
left, the total space reserved for the item would be 2 rows. (See 

Fig. 1, p. 314.) 

4. Placing, — The placing of any item of stores depends on the 
shape and character of the article, and the nature of the storage place. 
On the floor are placed cases of such size and weight as would be apt 
to break a platform in handling. All other stores except those stowed 
in bins or on racks are placed on platforms. These are largely goods 
of bulk and weight, such as sometimes require more than one man to 
handle and pile (e.g.^ barrels, bags, bales, bundles, and ordinary 
cases and crates). Small stores, such as those in small boxes, cartons, 
and packages, and loose supplies are put in bins. Articles of un- 
wieldy length, like iron piping, are placed on racks. 

5. Accessibility, — Goods will be placed so as to be as easily ac- 
cessible as possible, those more frequently used being in the handier 
locations. 

6. Minimum Handling, — Consistent with the above, they will 
be placed so as to require as little handling as possible in receiving, 
stowing and removing. Old lots should not have to be disturbed 
when new lots are placed. Other things being equal, heavy bulky 
goods will have the shortest haul. 

7. Rows, — In stowing a bulky item of stores in quantity, effort 
will be made to concentrate it. Thus two rows opposite each other 
(across a side aisle) will be filled in preference to two adjacent 
rows. Any excess over two rows full may then be stowed in the 
aisle between. This saves space to almost the extent of solid block 
piling, yet preserves the desirably flexible row arrangement with its 
maximum of direct accessibility. 

8. Side Aisles, — Side aisles may be used for stowing only when 
the rows on either side are full of the same material. 

9. Main Aisles, — Main aisle space adjoining a wall may be 
filled out to parallel full rows and aisles of the same material on 
either side. Platforms will, when practicable, be placed for goods 
stowed in aisles. 



il 



i! 




:' ^i ^ i' 



[1 

i! if 



pi < 



316 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



Figure 2, page 314, illustrates the order in which rows and aisles 
may be filled with a large lot of one item. Removals will be in 
reverse order. See paragraph 3, page 320, under "Removing." 

10. Spoilage. — Articles should never be stowed in a position 
which might cause injury to them. Thus sheets of unprinted paper 
should lie flat and brooms should stand on handle end, or hang. 
Likewise, placing articles so they project from the edge of a bin or 
platform is to be avoided. In general, articles will be kept off the 
floor or the grou-nd. In placing items subject to deterioration from 
heat and dryness or from cold and dampness, it will be remembered 
that air near the ceiling is usually warmer and dryer than near the 
floor. 

11. Height. — In stowing goods, the greatest economy of space 
is secured by tiering in cubical stacks and blocks as high as is con- 
sistent with stability, thus leaving a maximum area for different 
groups and kinds of articles. Where economy of space is not critical, 
economy of time and effort are more important, and goods will be 
tiered only as high as an ordinary man can reach. Five feet to the 
top of the next to last tier is a normal height for packages not ex- 
ceeding 100 lbs. As far as possible men should work singly, rather 
than in groups. 

12. Shape; Cubical versus Pyramidal. — Where it is possible to 
choose between cubical and pyramidal piling of goods, the cubical 
method will be given preference. 

Advantages of cubical piling: 

1. More economical in use of space. 
Easier to keep uniform and regular. 
Easier to inspect. 
Easier to count. 
Less spoilage from weather, if uncovered. 



2. 

3- 
4- 
5- 



Advantages of pyramidal piling: 

1. Simpler and easier to secure stable tiering of cylindrical or 
other rolling articles, such as shells, by bracing the bottom tier only 
of each stack. Cubical tiering of such goods requires bracing the 
stack all the way up. 

2. Easier to cover from weather, because of its shape like a 
peaked roof. 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 

Where pyramidal piling is a necessity. 
No. in full stack =■ 

No. on bottom tier x (No. of tiers + l) 



DDD 

nnnn 
nnnnn 

For a full pyramidal stack with 5 in bottom tier 



317 



No. in stack =: 



5^(5+0 5x6 30 



= 15 



2 22 

The number in any block, whether pyramidal or cubical, will be 
the number in one full stack times the number of full stacks in the 
block. 

13. Uniformity. — Full columns, stacks or blocks of any one item 
will be kept uniform for that item. Only the last column, stack or 
block may remain incomplete, containing odd quantities. This will 
add both to neatness, and to ease and accuracy in counting. 

14. Group Piling. — Stores are piled singly or in multiples of 
five. Goods may be piled singly up to ten in a column. Beyond 
this the columns are made as high as the space will permit but of 
whole groups of five only. Groups are not broken to fill in a remain- 
ing space too small for a whole group. Thus every column of 
articles small enough to be piled in groups of five will contain some 
multiple of five and will be uniform for that article. For instance, 
if a bin holds 24 packages of letterheads piled snug to the top, the 
column will be made of 20 packages only, viz., 4 groups of 5 each. 

15. Stowing Area. — In any area to be filled, such as a platform 
unit, stowing is commenced at the back left-hand corner, and brought 
forward, each row of goods being completed to the front before a 
new row is started. Tiering is done as soon as the nature of the 



i 



318 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 



319 



r ! 



I; i 



II ill I 



1 1 ■ 



M 



h 



■|l 



nnnn 

nnnn 
nnnn 
nnnn 

nnnn 

nnnn 

nnnnn 

nnnnn 

nnnnn 

nnnnn 

Correct method of piling 

44 in 1 stack 

(front view) 



n 
n 

nn 
nn 

nnn 

nnnn 

nnnn 

nnnn 

nnnn 

nnnn 

nnnnn 

nnnnn 

nnnnn 

Incorrect method of pil- 
ing 44 in 1 stack 
(front view) 



goods permits and as high as possible so long as the stacks are stable, 
the uniform groups are preserved, and the stack does not come too 
near the ceiling. Space will be left for the proper working of the 
sprinkler pipes, and for properly removing (such as by upending) the 
goods on the top tier. 

16. Stowing Volume.— In any cubic space to be filled, such as a 
bin, stowing is commenced at the back left-hand corner, and carried 
on vertically until one column is completed. This is made the first 
of a row of such columns brought to the front and completed. The 
second row or columns will commence, as did the first, in the farthest 
left-hand corner of the remaining available space, and be built up 
and forward in the same manner. 



17. Separation of Lots.— B'l fit rent items or different lots of the 
same item will be kept distinct. If placed in the same storage space, 
they will be separated by a space of at least one inch if in bins, or 
three inches if on platforms. Each lot of each item has its own sep- 
arate tag and lot number. 

18. Direction.— Goods will be placed all one way unless for 
stability it is necessary to reverse or cross-pile. Reversing will be 
done singly or in groups, according as the goods are piled singly or in 
groups, the same dimensions, however, lying the same way. Cross- 
piling, or laying goods in each tier or course at right angles to those 
just below, while increasing stability, decreases accessibility and sure- 
ness of count. As stability is generally less vital than accessibility 
and flexibility, cross-piling will be resorted to only in special cases. 
Where ventilation is required, as in piling lumber, cross-bars separat- 
ing each course will be used. Thus the goods in all the courses 
may still lie all one way. The best way in general for goods to lie 
is with their ends out towards the aisle into which they will be with- 
drawn. If, however, space is economized to a marked degree (at least 
25 per cent) by placing the goods in some other way, it may be done. 

19. Labels.— Labels, or other means of identification, will be 
placed all one way, showing outward if consistent with other rules. 

20. Wrappings. — Articles with defective wrapping will be 
placed last, in order that they may be removed first. The person 
stowing goods is responsible for seeing that the tying or wrapping on 
packages is in as good condition as his facilities enable him to secure. 
This includes the putting on of new wrappings when necessary and 

feasible. 

21. Maximum. — The maximum quantity ordinarily stowed will 
occupy not more than 75 per cent of the space available. The re- 
maining space is reserved for times of special need. 

Removing. — 1. Parts of One Lot. — In removing goods from 
storage, in any one lot the last goods to be put in place are removed 
first, and further removals are made in just the reverse order to 
that in which they were placed. This means the cleaning up of in- 
complete before complete columns, stacks and blocks are touched. 

2. More than One Lot. — In the case of more than one lot of any 
one item, the lots are drawn from in order of age commencing with 
the oldest, unless otherwise specified on the issue. Not until all the 
goods of one lot are removed from any part of a storage space and 
the tag removed, is that part available for stowing a new lot. 






320 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 




i 



i i 



3. Goods Concentrated in Aisles. — Where goods have been con- 
centrated by stowage in side aisles between regular storage rows (sec 
paragraphs 7-9 under "Stowing"), removals will be made first from 
aisle spaces. No goods will be removed from a regular row until 
adjoining aisle spaces have been entirely cleared. 

4. Pyramidal Blocks. — Removals from a pyramidal block will 
not be from the side slopes or from along the top, but will be stack 
by stack from the front. Thus there will be not more than one in- 
complete stack at any one time, all stacks behind the front one being 
complete. Removals from any one stack will be tier by tier from the 
top, so as not to disturb existing stability, or any braces at the bottom 
tier. 

D 

nnn 

nana 
nnaan 

Full Stack of 15 

nnnn 

nDDDD 

Correct removal of 6, leaving 9 

DDD 

nnnn 

Incorrect removal of 6, leaving 9 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 

Warehousing of Merchandise * 



3^1 



To the general merchandise subdivision of the American Warehouse- 
mens Association: 

Gentlemen : In the performance of the duties assigned to your 
Committee ^ they have followed the principle laid down in the 1918 
Report, that their work should be strictly confined to preparing a 
standardized basis for rates from which the individual warehouse- 
man could compute rates that would be equitable as between dif- 
ferent commodities in his warehouse; rates that would produce the 
same net revenue from each and every class of goods whether stored 
in bulk or in assortment, in quantity or in small lots. They have as- 
sumed that not only was it no part of their duty to attempt to pro- 
duce uniformity of price as between different warehouses, but that 
it was imperative they do nothing that wov)d indicate or su^^cst 
a combination to establish such uniformity ; to do so, whether or not 
it could be construed as a combination in restraint of trade, would be 
directly contrary to the evident intent with which they were ap- 
pointed. 

It has appeared to the Committee that in view of the increase in 

cost, both of construction and operation, the growing demand for 
services other than simple storage and handling, and the great ad- 
vances we have made in our knowledge and understanding of ware- 
house expenses, customs and economics, their first and most pressing 
duty was to revise and bring up to date the 1918 Report. Valuable 
as that report was when made, it is already out of date and almost 
obsolete and in the present report they have endeavored to make it 
as of September, 1920. 

The theory of the back piling of goods in assortment has been 
abandoned for the reason that the vast majority of building laws and 
regulations do not permit overloading any floor space to counter- 
balance underload or vacancy on adjoining space. 

The car-lot and assortment system has been replaced by the lot- 
unit system for the reason that existing railroad classifications are 
found to be inequitable and indefensible when applied to goods in 



* Report of the Central Bureau Committee, General Merchandise Sub- 
division, American Warehousemen's Association, 1920. 

'The committee was composed of the following: T. E. Witters, chair- 
man, Baltimore, Md.; John Bekins, vice-chairman, Omaha, Neb.; C. W. 
Macdonald, Chicago, 111.; Edwin Morton, New York, N. Y.; S. G. Spear, 
Boston, Mass.; George Hamley, Minneapolis, Minn.; S. H. Verrall, Chicago, 
111.; D. L. Tilly, New York, N. Y.; E. H. Bacon, Louisville, Ky.; R. W^ 
Dietrich, New Orleans, La. 



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WHARF MANAGEMENT 



warehouse, and several other minor changes have been made for 
similar reasons. 

Your Committee realize that this report will appear complicated 
to a novice in warehousing, but that is inevitable. Just as an engi- 
neer requires a knowledge of mathematics, a lawyer a knowledge of 
law, a banker a knowledge of finance, so a warehouseman requires a 
knowledge of the fundamental principles of his business, and none of 
these may be acquired without study. There is no royal road to 
learnmg; no warehousemen's guide can be prepared that would en- 
able a neophyte to become a warehouseman without preparation, ex- 
perience and study, and as Mr. Dooley says, " 'tis better so." This 
report is of value only to those warehousemen who "want to know" 
and are willing to work for knowledge. Your Committee have 
worked long and hard to prepare it, but their labor will have been 
in yarn unless you are willing to master and apply the results so 
far as they are directly applicable to your particular business, and 
to continue to modify them as your individual needs may require 

There have been five meetings of the Committee during the year, 
at Atlantic City, February 2, 3, and 4; at Pittsburgh, May 17, 18. 
and 19; at Minneapolis, July 13, 14, and 15; at Louisville, October 
4, 5, 6, and 7; and at Boston, October 20 and 21; also numerous 
meetings of subcommittees and conferences of individual members 
Messrs. Jacobson of the New York Bureau, Carruth of the Massa- 
chusetts Association, and Criss of the Central Bureau sat with the 
Committee at every meeting and rendered invaluable assistance, and 
the General Bureau Committee has been represented at every meeting 
by its chairman and one or more other members. 



EXPLANATION OF TERMS 

Standard pile is a pile containing the greatest quantity of a 
commodity that can be practically stored in bulk, not exceeding SV 
feet high nor 250 pounds per square foot of floor space occupied. ' 
Lot unit (L. U.) is the quantity of a commodity contained in a 
standard pile covering 120 square feet. 

Height of standard pile is the theoretical height of the standard 
pile as computed from the gross weight per cubic foot of the com- 
modity in pile. When it is not practical to pile as high as the theo- 
retical point indicates, then the practical height is substituted. 

Floor load is the weight of a pile of goods per square foot of floor 
space occupied. 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 



3^3 



Index is the number of square feet of floor space occupied by a 
package in pile when stored to the maximum practical pile height 
(not exceeding 8V3 feet), weight not considered. 

Density is the weight per cubic foot of a commodity. 

Assortment is the term used to describe a lot of goods containing 
more than one mark, brand or sign to be stored and accounted for 
separately. 

Pile space is the floor space actually occupied by a pile of goods 
exclusive of entrance aisles made necessary by assortment or indi- 
vidual package delivery. 

Available space is the total floor space inside of walls after de- 
ducting elevators, stairways, office, shipping, and laborers' room. 

Occupiable space is the available space less main, or permanent, 
aisles and columns. 

Gross space is based on outside measurement of building and in- 
cludes space occupied by walls. 

Honeycomb is the state, or condition, of a pile when partial 
delivery has reduced the number of packages in pile without propor- 
tionately reducing the floor space occupied. 

Individual package delivery^ sometimes called "Serial Number 
Delivery," is assortment carried to its extreme, wherein every pack- 
age must be stored and accounted for separately. 

Base class is computed on not less than a lot unit of one mark, 
brand, or size to be stored and accounted for separately. 

Productive labor cost is the wage cost of laborers and checkers 
while actually engaged in an operation for which a charge is made. 

STANDARD WAREHOUSE RULES AND REGULATIONS 

1. Packages. — The warehouse undertakes to store and deliver 
goods only in the original packages in which they are received. 

2. Tender for Storage. — All goods for storage are to be de- 
livered at the warehouse properly marked and packed for handling, 
and the storer shall furnish at or prior to such delivery a manifest 
showing marks, brands or sizes to be kept and accounted for sep- 
arately. Otherwise the goods will be stored in bulk or lots at the 
discretion of the warehouse and will be billed accordingly. 

3. Warehouse Receipts. — A warehouse receipt will be issued on 
each lot of goods stored. No charge will be made for the issuance of 
non-negotiable receipts. 

4. Storage Periods. — Unless otherwise provided, all commodities 
are stored on month-to-month contracts, and the warehouse reserves 



1!' 



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WHARF MANAGEMENT 



1} ! 



M vi 



1 11 1 



the right to require the removal of any goods within thirty days from 
next storage date. Only such notice as is reasonable or possible under 
the circumstances is required on perishable or hazardous goods. 

5- Storage Rates and Expiration.— Storage rates cover ware- 
house space required for one month or fraction thereof, dating from 
receipt of the first package, and are charged in advance from that 
date up to but not including same date of the following month. 
When the final expiring date falls on a Sunday or legal holiday, 
the next business day shall be deemed the expiring day. 

6. Transfers New Contract. —When goods in storage are trans- 
f erred on the books of the warehouse from one party to another, a new 
contract is made thereby and a new storage date established on the 
date of such transfer. 

7. Bonded Stores.— Due to the extra expense of operating 
bonded warehouses an extra charge over regular storage, handling 
and other rates will be made for bonded merchandise. 

8. Insurance.— Storage rates do not include insurance of any 
kind and insurance rates, if quoted, are not guaranteed. 

9- Limited Liability.— LiMUty of the warehouse for loss of or 
damage to goods stored shall in no case exceed eight dollars ($8) per 
cubic foot or twenty-five (25) cents per pound, according as weight 
or size determines the rate, unless excess value is declared by the cus- 
tomer at the time the goods are stored. A charge will be made for 
such excess value. 

10. Responsibility of TF are house. —The responsibilit> of the 
warehouse is defined by the laws of the State. 

All goods are stored at owner's risk of loss or damage by civil 
or military authority, or insurrection, riot, strikes, enemies of the 
government, sprinkler leakage, flood, wind, storm, fire, moth, corrup- 
tion, depredation of rats, mice, or vermin, change of temperature, 
or by any cause beyond the control of the warehouse. 

The warehouse will assume no responsibility for concealed dam- 
age, leakage of liquids, or for losses in weight by reason of defective 
or msufficient containers whether occurring when goods are on storage 
or are being handled, nor for failure to detect or remedy the same 

All storage, handling or other charges must be paid on goods lost 
damaged or destroyed. ' 

n. Access to Goods.— Customers, their representatives or work- 
men will not be allowed to have access to or work on goods in store 
unless accompanied by a warehouse employee, for whose time a 
charge will be made. 

12. Delivery Orders.— Orders signed in full and in writing will 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 



325 



be required for the delivery of all goods, and this reasonable precau- 
tion shall be taken by the owner in order that the warehouse may 
know definitely the goods desired and make proper delivery. 

13. Excess Deliveries. — A charge will be made for an excessive 
number of deliveries from any one lot. 

14. Time for Effecting Delivery. — When goods in store are 
ordered out, a reasonable time shall be given the warehouse to 
execute the order. Inability to effect delivery before expiring storage 
dates shall not prevent assessing the storage charge for another 
month. 

15. Handling. — Handling charges cover only the ordinary labor 
and duties incidental to receiving goods at warehouse door, stowing 
and delivering at warehouse door, and do not include loading or un- 
loading cars, trucks, or other vehicles. Handling charges will be 
billed with the storage charge for the first month. 

16. Unloading Cars. — Charges for unloading cars include the 
use of tracks, platforms, etc., and the labor of unloading. 

17. Loading Cars. — Charges for loading cars cover the use of 
tracks, platforms, etc., and the labor of loading cars. 

18. Demurrage. — Demurrage will not be absorbed by the ware- 
house, but diligence will be used to load or unload cars promptly. 

19. Distribution. — Distribution charges cover the checking ouC 
and delivery of goods at car within the time specified by the ware- 
house. Previous to the unloading, notice shall be given stating the 
number of packages wanted, brands, sizes, etc., and to whom they are 
to be delivered. The charge for distribution is additional to the 
car unloading. 

2D. Dray age. — Drayage charges cover ordinary cartage of goods 
and delivery at platform or sidewalk. When delivery is required in 
basement or on upper floors or other inconvenient places, an extra 
charge will be made. 

21. Shipping. — Shipping charges cover billing, marking or tag- 
ging, procuring bills of lading and mailing same. A separate 
charge will be made for each express or parcel post shipment. 

22. Furnishing Space, Light, Tools, etc. — Whenever warehouse 
space, light, power, tools, or material of any sort are supplied or 
loaned by the warehouse, a charge will be made therefor. 

23. Weighing, Sampling, Coopering, etc. — A charge will be 
made for weighing, sampling, coopering and other miscellaneous 
services when performed by the warehouse. 

24. Extra Labor. — Charges will be assessed for extra labor 
furnished by the warehouse, whether common, skilled, or clerical. 



n 



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326 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



25. r^>^z;z^ Z)^a;;^, i?^/,e7z„^, ^/r.-When goods are taken down 
and repi ed in store for weigher or other convenience of customer, 
the handling charge of receiving and delivering will be applied. 

26. Collections.—K charge will be made for making collections 
tor customers. 

27. Cash Items Advanced.— Freight and other cash items ad- 
vanced become a lien on the goods stored, and are payable on demand. 
A charge for this service will be made. Deliveries or transfers from 
such lots will not be made until lien is satisfied. 

28. Stock Statements. ~^tock statements submitted in duplicate 
by customer will be checked with the books of the warehouse without 
charge. 

A charge will be made for warehouse checking or stock taking 

29. Gross Wezghts.~V^h,n rates are quoted by weight, they 
will be computed on the gross weight 

(2,000) porndl""'* "™ """" ""'" ""''' "'""^ *- ">--<» 

31. Mtmmum Charg es.-MXmmum ratings will be applied on 
storage, handling or other service charges. 

32. Postage.-VostTigt and addressed envelopes must be fur- 
nished by customers requiring notification of shipments or deliveries 
and reports. 

33- Charges Due.— AW charges become due when billed 

34- Labor Disputes, Strikes, etc.-Tht warehouse will not be 
responsible for delays in receiving or delivering merchandise by rea! 
son of labor disputes, strikes, or any other causes beyond the control 
01 the warehouse. 

35. State Laws. —Nothmg herein contained shall be deemed a 



STANDARD BASIS FOR CLASSIFICATION OF GOODS FOR STORAGE 

The infinite variety of packages offered for storage, varying in 
weight from ten to three thousand pounds, in size from one-half to 
one hundred and fifty cubic feet, and in shape from perfect sym- 
metry to the irregularity of an uncrated piece of machinery; the 
wide variation in the nature of the commodities and the consequent 
dfferent requirements as to care, location, and handling, and the 

Eed hT^" r'"'; '" ^^"'^"^ ^^ "^^'^^ classificatfon a com! 
plicated and difficult task. We believe, however, practically all of 



. 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 



327 



the goods offered for storage can be properly classified, and in a man- 
ner that is comparatively simple for the operating force. 

It is all-important that the factors used in any classification shall 
rest on a defensible foundation, and serious consideration has been 
given to the work along this line, particularly to the questions of 
height of pile and floor load, and laws relative to use and occupancy 
when once these two points are fixed. Certainly no classification 
could be of value that did not comply with the law and the insurance 
regulations. 

The basis of this classification for storage is the greatest com- 
modity quantity that can be practically stored in bulk on 120 square 
feet of floor space not exceeding 250 pounds per square foot or 8V3 
feet high. 

Less than Full Lot Unit Quantity. — The demand for serv- 
ice of various kinds makes it necessary to provide a segregation of the 
quantity adopted for the base classification, and here we are con- 
fronted with the complicating factors of assortment, decreased piling 
height due to instability of pile in small unit, excessive honeycomb, 
excessive delivery costs, etc. 

It is no longer a theory but a fact, that a serious matter con- 
fronts the industry with the changed character of the business offered 
warehousemen in recent years, enhancing costs very materially and 
adding much to the warehouseman's responsibility. 

Statistical data are fundamental and although cost accountants 
have recently revealed many facts on costs of specific services pertain- 
ing to storing and handling goods, particularly in small units, yet 
it is practically impossible to combine the known facts in a formula 
that will in all cases do justice to storer and warehouseman alike 
without an excessive amount of special charges, complicating the 
rating system and not desired by either party. 

In view of this present and ever-increasing demand for service 
it is manifestly unjust to apply to all receipts the average cost of 
storing or handling a commodity under all conditions, and the result 
of such practice must be obvious to all thinking warehousemen. 

The situation demands that warehousemen meet this condition in 
some practical way, and after due consideration of all information 
available it seems best to assume that the storer who elects to store his 
goods in small units is dealing with the warehouseman in a retail way 
and therefore should bear the burden, an assumption that may or 
may not be true in specific cases but nevertheless is representative of 
the trend of costs and a recognized principle in commercial activity. 

The above conclusion is reached on the further assumption that 






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328 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



. each car of goods received shall be computed on its own basis and as 
such the sorting would be included in the rate. If, however the 
shipment consists of more than one car, each containing assortment 
but to be accumulated for storage in full lot unit quantities or more 
the warehouseman would be entitled to extra reimbursement for the 
extra service involved. 

Individual Package Delivery. -Although individual package 
delivery is less than lot unit" carried to its extreme and differs 
therefrom only in degree, it requires somewhat different consideration. 
m L. L. U. a percentage is used that is assumed to represent the 
average waste of space due to aisles and honeycomb in the various 
sizes of lot. A lot of less than five packages is rare and the percent- 
ages are estimated on a much higher average ; in I. P. D. the lot is one 
package. Thirty-three and one-third per cent aisles are generally 
sufficient, but in the case of small packages a wider aisle may be 
required to admit a man or a truck. This also occurs in the case of 
irregular-sized packages, such as case goods or dry goods, the aisle 
having to admit the maximum package. 

Height of pile is also limited to a point lower than that indicated 
in ^. L. U. owing to the increased instability of pile and excessive 
cost of delivery of packages in the lower tiers. Experience demon- 
strates that four packages high is an extreme limit ; that two high is 
the height most often indicated ; and that one high is much more 
frequent than anything over two. 

Small Pflc^^^^j.— Theoretically, small packages of a commod- 
ity can be stored at proportionate rates per hundredweight to that of 
the larger packages of the same commodity, but this does not appear 
to work out under practical operating conditions. In many cases 
the instability of the pile when partial delivery of the lot takes place 
necessitates the removal of goods in the upper tiers to a lower level ; 
fragility of package oftentimes will not permit of rehandling broken 
lots for the purpose of making space for other goods, and the ex- 
cessive cost of rehandling all tend towards excessive honeycomb of 
the house. The absence of statistics to indicate the extent of this loss 
makes it necessary to accept some arbitrary figure in the computa- 
tion of the rate. Furthermore, it seems advisable to fix a minimum 
charge on small packages regardless of weight. This increased charge 
may be avoided if the manufacturer will pack or strap small units 
into one larger unit for which he will receive a lower rating per 100 
pounds than he would otherwise obtain. 

(See full ttxt of "Report of the Central Bureau Committee- 
American Warehousemen's Association, 1920.") 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 

AVERAGE OCCUPANCY OF WAREHOUSE SPACE 



3^9 



The total available space as defined on page 323 is the basis of all 
computations and estimates. A portion of this space is necessarily 
permanently unoccupied, and this has been divided into two classes 
—aisle space and working space. Another portion is sometimes oc- 
cupied and sometimes unoccupied, and this has also been divided 
into two classes— waste space and idle space. All of these classes 
will vary in different warehouses and with different lines of business 
and the last one will vary as between different seasons or years. 

Aisle Space.— The permanent aisles required for the economi- 
cal handling of goods from door to pile and from pile to door, or 
required by the fire regulations to furnish access for firemen, are esti- 
mated at from 20 per cent to 25 per cent. No warehouses were found 
where the actual figure was less than this estimate, and while there 
are many where it must be more, it was not thought proper to take 
into consideration a manifestly badly designed or poorly laid-out 
warehouse or an unsuitable building used for warehouse purposes. 

Working Space.— It is well known to all warehousemen that 
some vacant space is necessary at all times, or practically all times, 
to provide for regular customers; to furnish room for weighing, 
inspection, or examination, sampling, rehandling of any kind, and 
to take care of unexpected demands for space. No warehouse can 
hold its customers long unless it constantly, or at least generally, 
has on hand some stock of the only line it has to sell, namely, space 
for the storage of merchandise. How long can a merchant hold his 
trade without having any stock to fill an order? The necessary 
average of working space has been estimated at 5 per cent to 12 
per cent, and this minimum is certainly conservative. 

Waste Space.— Tht space left vacant by partial delivery of 
block or bulk lots and the space left vacant by failure of lots as 
received to fill entirely any space obtainable at the moment. This 
waste space is not to be readily estimated, but it is there just the same. 
Even unit lots of merchandise cannot be packed in a warehouse like 
toy building blocks in their box. Waste space is estimated at from 
O to 8 per cent, and again the minimum is manifestly low. 

Idle Space.— It is well known that there come in our business 
dull years or seasons that show a surplus of vacant space and deficit 
of earnings that must be taken care of in good years. In 1913 and 
1914, Massachusetts warehouses averaged less than 40 per cent 
capacity or 30 per cent available floor space occupied. Next to aisle 
space this is the largest item of unoccupied space and it is one that 



330 



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WHARF MANAGEMENT 



cannot be avoided. The difference between the maximum and the 
minimum demand for storage is very great, and if warehouses as a 
whole are to be reasonably prepared to take care of the peak load 
they must necessarily average a considerable proportion of idle 
space. What that proportion is cannot be accurately determined, but 
an estimate between limits can be made. Those limits have been set 
at from o to 40 per cent. That maximum has undoubtedly been 
exceeded, but exceptional cases should not be considered in deter- 
mining averages, and the maximum here used represents a not uncom- 
mon occurrence. 

The result of these various estimates is : 

Aisle space (including space oc- 
cupied by columns) 20 to 25 per cent 

Working space 5 to 12 per cent 

Space permanently unoccupied 25 to 37 per cent 

Waste space o to 8 per cent 

Idle space o to 40 per cent 

Space unoccupied at times o to 48 per cent 

25 to 85 per cent 

In other words, the maximum and minimum percentages of occu- 
pancy are respectively 75 per cent and 15 per cent, the extremes of 
vacancy being 25 per cent and 85 per cent. The mathematical aver- 
age IS 45 per cent, but it has seemed to the Committee that good 
busmess management in a Standard Warehouse should produce a 
little better than that, and so the 50 per cent figure has been 
used. 

In considering this it must not be forgotten that 50 per cent of 
available floor space occupied does not mean that the warehouse is 
only half full. It means that the warehouse is three-fifths to three- 
quarters full. From 25 per cent to 40 per cent of "available space," 
although It is "available" for business purposes, is not "occupiable" 
for goods on storage as it is necessary for aisles and working space. 
When a warehouseman has filled his occupiable space— from 60 per 
cent to 75 per cent of his available space— he is done, he is out of 
business for the time being, he can take no more business until after 
he has delivered something. That means that he must discommode 
old customers and decline new ones; his working force is idle though 
his pay roll is still active and his handling account is developing a 
balance on the wrong side. 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 



331 



The Committee believe that these estimates are conservative and 
that the conclusion is defensible. 

HANDLING 

The warehouse business has in many cases been very unprofitable 
in the past as a result of ignorant competition due to an absolute lack 
of knowledge of the cost of handling merchandise. 

One of the most serious mistakes has been losing sight of the fact 
that there is a heavy overhead expense attached to handling opera- 
tions. This oversight has practically made bankrupts of many 
warehouse concerns whose executives were experts on general prob- 
lems and the handling of labor. 

Unusual conditions, due largely to the war, have created an 
extraordinary demand for storage facilities. This has resulted in 
some warehouse concerns enjoying an era of prosperity who were in 
a rather precarious financial condition before the war. The demand 
for storage facilities caused many new warehouse concerns to enter 
the field. The inevitable reaction with its attendant period of com- 
petition requires careful consideration and demonstrates the need of 
every warehouseman in the country for a sound fundamental basis for 
complete knowledge of his own business. 

The unscientific method commonly used for estimating handling 
costs was to determine the actual cost of the in movement of the 
goods; an arbitrary amount for delivery (varying all the way from 
50 per cent to 150 per cent of the in cost) was added as an estimate 
of the probable delivery cost and the price was then quoted slightly, 
if any, higher than the resultant figure. Nothing was added for 
overhead expense, nor was consideration given to the various addi- 
tional services furnished. 

This method, when wages of warehouse labor averaged 20 cents 
per hour, made the handling rate appear to be about the same as the 
prevailing rate for storage. From this grew up the rough and ready 
idea of charging the same amount for handling as for one month's 
storage. Thus, the first month's charge would include the receiving 
and delivering of the merchandise and would be twice the charge for 
each succeeding month. 

The actual result of following this method has been that some 
commodities were carrying the burden for others, or in other words 
some commodities were paying an excessive rate of profit, while 
others were handled at an actual loss; obviously the warehouseman 
would be far better off were he to discontinue accepting for storage 



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WHARF MANAGEMENT 



the latter class of merchandise, if increased rates could not be ob- 
tained. By the same reasoning, when he determines the line of 
merchandise which pays the excessive profit, by catering to that 
line, possibly somewhat reducing his rates, he may apparently in- 
crease his final net income. 

Studies by experts have so far shown that throughout the country 
the average overhead expense is at least 125 per cent of the direct 
pay-roll cost of laborers and checkers actually engaged in performing 
any particular handling operations. 

The old method was in cost, plus estimated out cost, plus profit, 
or arbitrarily arrived at by making the rate the same as the storage 
rate. The correct method is tn and out cost plus overhead, plus 
profit. Ten to twenty-five per cent is a very conservative amount to 
add to the combined direct labor and overhead cost of handling, for 
profit. 

Wages have advanced to several times those paid since the old 
method of charging equal rates for storage and handling was first 
used. Taking into consideration these factors of increased wages, 
overhead expense and profit, it will be found that equitable handling 
rates may often be three or four times the rates shown- in tariffs 
even now in use in some sections of the country, while, per contra^ 
handling rates for some commodities may be less than the rate for 
storage. 

The absorption in the handling charge (usually billed with the first 
month's storage) of the cost of unloading and loading cars, transfers 
from wharves to warehouses, cartage, weighing, and other services 
has been a growing evil. It has in effect given indirect rebates to cer- 
tain customers and substantially added to the losses of the ware- 
houseman, or reduced his profits. It has been proved that in some 
instances the cost of handling and other services absorbed have made 
it impossible to earn one cent from certain lots of merchandise until 
they have been in store four months or more, actual losses being 
incurred on lots removed from store within shorter periods. 

The simplest handling operation is the receiving of goods from 
the tailboard of a truck, the hoisting and piling in warehouse and 
the redelivery to the tailboard of a truck (other services being some- 
times required and sometimes not) ; it is therefore good accounting 
practice to make this the base operation charged for in the first month 
and make extra charges for extra services. Thus car loading and un- 
loading should be charged for separately, as well as cartage, weigh- 
ing, or any other service required, each being based on productive 
cost plus overhead, plus profit. 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 



333 



In these days of advancing wages, cost figures at the time goods 
are received may be based on a wage scale far lower than when the 
goods are delivered. The present method of billing for receiving and 
delivering allows no opportunity of taking care of this possible source 
of loss. The proper method of handling this phase of the sub- 
ject would be to charge for the handling in when goods are 
received and to charge handling out to the party then owning the 
goods when delivery is made. This is such a radical charge that 
it is not deemed advisable to make such a recommendation at this 
time. 

It is very essential that much data be secured in all parts of the 
country as to the productive labor cost of handling all kinds of 
merchandise. The American Warehousemen's Association has es- 
tablished a Central Bureau for the purpose of compiling data con- 
cerning handling costs; this information is being secured from all 
sections of the country and its value to a warehouseman cannot be 
overestimated. 

Productive labor as used in this report is understood to mean 
the wage cost of the laborers and checkers while actually em- 
ployed on an operation for which the warehouse is making a 
charge. 

In order to make these records valuable in all sections of the 
country, they should be computed on a man-hour basis. By the use 
of man-hours real comparison may be made and results may be 
easily translated into dollars and cents by applying the wage per hour 
prevailing in any particular locality. 

In addition to the establishment of the Central Bureau, informa- 
tion bureaus in connection with local associations of warehousemen 
with paid actuaries are being established throughout the country. 
Exchange of information in regard to man-hour costs between dif- 
ferent parts of the country can thus be readily accomplished and all 
sections can quote reasonable rates even on commodities with which 
they are unfamiliar. 

An example showing the method of applying this system of 
handling charges is given on the following page. 

As the next package rate step above 14.4 is 15, this would be the 
handling rate to apply, assuming the example to be a fair average 
productive labor cost. 

A method for securing productive labor costs as well as amount 
of overhead expense is shown in the later sections on Pay-Roli 
Division and Determination of Overhead. 



ji 



t ', 



334 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 

Receiving and Delivering 1,037 Bags Tapioca 

AVERAGE weight 1 52 LBS. 





Total 
Man-Hours 


Man-Hours 
Per Package 


Receiving 

I checker, 9 men 5^ hrs 

Delivering 

I checker, 5 men 93^ hrs 


52.50 
57.00 






.05 

.054 




109.50 


.104 




Total 
Cost 


• 

Cost per 

Pkg. in 

Cents 


Cost per 

100 Lbs. in 

Cents 


Labor cost, 109.50 man-hours at 
55 cents 


$60.23 
75.29 


5.8 

7.3 

13.1 
1.3 


3.81 


12 S Der cent overhead 


4.80 






10 per cent profit 


$135.52 
13.55 


8.61 
.86 








$149.07 


14.4 


9.47 



uniform cost accounting 

Uniform systems of accounts and statistical records form the 
bedrock upon which any rate foundation or structure must be built if 
the building is to stand the tests which are bound to be applied either 
by customers or by public officials. This is as pertinent to ware- 
housing as it is to transportation or any other form of public utility. 

In calculating rates, statistical data must be available from many 
warehouses in order that averages may be obtained upon which to 
establish standards. Uniform systems of keeping the accounts and 
statistics by the warehouses will be necessary in order to justify rates 
made for storage, handling, car unloading and loading, or any other 
service rendered. 

A suitable system of uniform accounting will necessitate : 
I. Classification of earnings or receipts. 

Uniform classification with separate accounts for these earnings 
from all important sources: 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 



335 



(0 

(d) 

(e) 
(/) 



(e) 

if) 



Storage. 

Handling.^ 

Weighing and sampling. 

Miscellaneous extra services. 

Loading and unloading cars. 

All other miscellaneous sources of revenue. 

II. Classification of expenses. , 

Uniform classification of expense of operatmg, with separate 

accounts subdivided as in earnings. 

(a) Storage. 

Handling (corresponding to K c, and d, under 

Earnings). 
Car service. 
Expenses connected with miscellaneous sources of 

revenue. 

III. Determination of investment. 

(a) Plant (land, buildings, private street). 

(b) Equipment (elevators, trucks, etc.). 

(c) Trackage facilities (land, car tracks, car platforms). 

IV. Determination and application of overhead expenses. 

All pay-roll items and other expenses which cannot be 
applied directly to Storage, Handling, Car Service, or 
any other particular service, must be analyzed and dis- 
tributed according to a uniform plan. These being added 
to the direct costs, the entire or true cost of each service 
will be found. 

classification of expenses in detail 

Expense (A) Storage. 
Rent, or in lieu of rent. 

1. Seven per cent on investment including buildings, land 

occupied by buildings and interest, taxes and insurance 
during construction. 

2. Depreciation — 2 per cent on value of brick or concrete 

buildings and 3 per cent on frame buildings. 

3. Obsolescence. 

4. Fire insurance on buildings. 

5. Taxes, Federal, State and Municipal, applicable to real 

estate. 



^Handling is here understood to mean the in and out handling from 
sill to sill of the warehouse, custcmarily charged in the first month. 




m 









11 ; i 



^: I 




336 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



6. Repairs to building. 

7. Landlord's risk, amortization and profit on investment. 
Administration and operating expenses, taxes, etc. 

1. One-third of executives' salaries, salaries of departmental 

heads, office salaries, general office and miscellaneous 
expense. 

2. Watching. 

3. Advertising. 

4. Interest on working capital. 

5. Taxes. Applicable to storage. 

6. Contingencies. 



Explanatory Notes — Expense (A) 

Investment, — If the plant is rented, estimated values should be 
used. 

Depreciation. — Depreciation as usually allowed by the Internal 
Revenue Department is 2 per cent on brick or concrete buildings and 
3 per cent on frame buildings. 

Obsolescence. — Obsolescence as allowed by the Internal Revenue 
Department should be given due consideration. 

Repairs. — This item comprises only ordinary repairs to keep 
buildings in good condition. Extraordinary repairs increasing the 
value of the plant should go to capital or investment accounts. 

General Expenses. — An analysis of a number of warehouses 
shows that about two-thirds of the time of the office employees, and 
therefore the management also, is concerned with the various han- 
dling operations. Storage is rental and can be carried on by a very 
small force if a contractor or some other party attends to the han- 
dling. Office expenses, such as telephones, office coal and light, and 
sundry expenses, are also included in this item. 

Watching. — Watching is for the protection of the property and 
reduces the fire insurance rate. It, therefore, is a proper storage 
expense. 

Advertising. — Advertising for storage only belongs here. The 
warehouseman's principal business is that of storage, and handling 
is incidental to it ; accordingly, it is proper to consider advertising for 
storage purely a storage expense. Advertising for laborers is a 
labor expense. 

Interest on Working Capital.— A certain amount of working 
capital is necessary to carry bills receivable. 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 



337 



3- 
4- 



6. 

7- 
8. 

9- 

10. 



Expense (B) Handling; (C) Weighing and Sampling; (D) Mis- 

cellaneous Extra Service. , . , • 1 j- „ 

1. Actual warehouse labor employed productively, mcludmg 

warehouse clerks, checkers and weighers. 

2. Nonproductive labor, including: 

Moving merchandise. 

Holiday time. 

Janitor and cleaning. 

Undistributed labor. 
Liability insurance. . 

Seven per cent on the investment in equipment, includmg 

elevators, whips, trucks, scales, etc. 
Taxes applicable to handling whether assessed on value ot 

equipment, amount of working capital or on income. 
Ten per cent depreciation on Item 4. 
Repairs to equipment. 
Power and light. 

Claims. . 

Two-thirds of executives' salaries, salaries of departmental 
heads, office salaries, general office and miscellaneous ex- 
pense. (Less amount charged to car service.) 

11. Interest on working capital. 

12. Miscellaneous supplies and expenses connected with labor. 

Note A.— Items 2 to 12, inclusive, divided by Item 1 will pro- 
duce the percentage of overhead expense for handling. 

Note B.— Item 10 includes: Executive salaries, salaries of de- 
partmental heads, office salaries, office supplies, telephone, water, 
coal for office heating, contributions, and all miscellaneous small 
items of expense not directly chargeable to storage, handling, car 
service, or other miscellaneous services. 

Explanatory Notes— Expenses B, C, D 

Productive and Nonproductive Labor.— The method of finding 
these amounts by divisions of the pay roll is discussed in the section 

devoted to this subject. 

Equipment Investment.— The investment in equipment should 
be determined by the warehouseman to furnish a basis for these 

figures. . , • 

Power and Light.— Ymmshmg of power or light is a labor 
service, varying according to the amount of merchandise handled. 



:i 



i'j!' 



V i 




338 



WHARF MANAGEMENT 



storage as such not requiring either. They are therefore handling 
expenses. (Storage should be kept a simple space rental proposition.) 

Claims.— This refers to breakage and loss claims due to negli- 
gence in handling merchandise. There are some claims which might 
be considered as storage liability, such as damage from leaking 
roofs. Each claim should be analyzed and placed where it belongs. 

Portion of General Expenses.— Where the labor covers more 
than one service, it is defensible to distribute the overhead expense 
proportionately according to the percentage the gross billing for each 
service bears to the total gross billing for labor. 

Miscellaneous Expense.— This covers items of general expense, 
directly chargeable to labor. 

Lubricants for equipment, general care of equipment and employ- 
ment departments are some items which are included. 

Expense (E) Car Service. 

1. Actual labor loading and unloading cars. 

2. Nonproductive labor. 

3. Liability insurance. 

4. Seven per cent on investment in land, tracks and platforms. 

5. Taxes applicable to Car Service. 

6. Five per cent depreciation on investment in tracks, etc. 

7. Repairs to tracks, etc. 

8. A share of executives' salaries, salaries of departmental heads, 

office salaries and general office and miscellaneous expenses. 

9. Interest on working capital. 
10. Contingencies. 

Note. — Item 8 should be determined as follows: Find the per- 
centage relation which the billings for loading and unloading cars 
bear to the total billings, exclusive of storage. Credit the amount 
represented by this percentage to Item 10, Expense (B) Handling, 
(C) Weighing and Sampling, (D) Miscellaneous Extra Services, 
and charge a like amount to Item 8 under Expense (E) Car Service. 

System Illustrated by a Standard Warehouse Constructed 

IN 1920 

Showing Initial Cost of Plant with Estimated Capital, Fixed 
Charges, Operating Expenses, Operating Revenues 

and Net Return 

This example has been prepared after exhaustive study of 
numerous estimates furnished by competent authorities, as a con- 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 



339 



servative illustration of the rates required to produce a reasonably 
adequlte return. The majority of warehouse bud dmgsco^^^^^^^^^ 
during 1920 have exceeded the estimated costs mdicated below. 

It should be carefully noted that this illustration covers a con- 

servative estimate of the average cost of this type of warehouse and 

hat the conclusions as to rates reached through its use must be 

revsed upward or downward as the case may be, through considera- 

"on of local conditions, depreciation, land values, accessibility, etc. 

specifications 

Standard reinforced 200' X lOo' (outside dimensions), six stories 
and basement, flat slab construction with brick or ^oll-." 7»-^- 
Three 12" fire walls of brick or hollow tile equally dividmg build- 
ing into four sections, and two concrete enclosed swjrways. Clear- 
ance between floors ,0' except ,5' on first floor AH floors havmg 
no less than 250 lbs. per square foot rated floor-load cap-ty served 
with standard dry pipe Sprinkler system, two source supply, w'th 
tank of CO.OOO gals, capacity. Equipment consistmg of four (4) 
8.000 pound elevators, four (4) '^^M. ^hip-^^f^ts^^Uctnc \^^, 
Tntercommunicating telephones between office and each floor, operat 
ing office, shipping clerks' office and room for laborers, necessary 
plumbing, heating and furniture for offices and laborers room. 

(No figures have been included for interior t.ermg machines and 
wiring, but these should be installed in any warehouse handling 

heavy materials.) j * u^ 

Facilities for handling cars consisting of two (2) railroad tracks 

with capacity for five (5) cars each, platform 10' wide on track 

side of building. . 

Area outside walls 200' X 100' X 7 = HO^ooo square feet 

Area inside walls 195' X 98' X 7 = 133J70 

Area available (taking out office, 

shipping and laborers' rooms, ele- ^^ ^^ 

vators and stairways) = 123,000 



ESTIMATED COST I92O 



Land 



For buildings 20,000 square feet 

For railroad siding and 

platform • 7'000 

For siding connection. . . . 1,000 



C( 



It 



(( 



I( 



28,000 square feet at $2 = $?6,000 



r 

?! 

iHii 





• i 



340 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

(No allowance is made for private streets which in many 

cases are necessary.) 
Building 

Construction, engineering and supervision including 

equipment and tank 140,000 square feet at $3.75 $525,000 

Two (2) tracks and platform 200' X 10' 8,000 

Equipment 

Elevators, whips, wiring, heating, plumbing, telephones, 

partitions and furniture for offices, shipping room and 

laborers' room 50,000 

Organization and charter 2,000 

Interest on land during construction — 1 year at 7 per 

cent 3»920 

Taxes and insurance during construction 1 1,620 

Interest on building cost during construction 10,000 

Working capital 83,460 

Capital Assets $750,000 



(a) storage 

Estimated Income 

One hundred twenty-three thousand square feet of available floor 
space at 96 cents per square foot per year based on 16 cents per 
square foot per month, 50 per cent of space occupied $1 18,080 

Note. — Main aisles and columns occupy 25 per cent of total 
space inside of walls after deducting elevators, stairways, office, 
shipping and laborers' room. The above basis of 50 per cent there- 
fore presupposes an average storage occupancy throughout the year 
of 66 2/3 per cent of actual occupiable storage space. 

Estimated Expenses 

Rent (or in lieu of rent) 
1. Interest on investment: 

Building $525,000 

Land, portion occupied 

by building only. . 40,000 
Organization 2,000 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 34 » 

Interest, taxes and in- 
surance during con- 
struction 25,540 

$592,540 at 7 per cent $4* 478 

2. Depreciation, building 

above foundation ... 500,000 at 2 per cent 10,000 

3. Obsolescence 525,000 at 1 per cent 5,250 

4. Fire insurance 90 per 

cent of value of build- 
ing above foundation. 450,000 at }/^ of 1 per cent 562 

5. Taxes, Federal, State and 

Municipal i^'^o^ 

6. Repairs to buildings .... 500,000 at 1 per cent 5,000 

7. Landlord's risk, amortiza- 

tion and profit on in- 
vestment 592,540 at 2^ per cent 14,814 

Total Rent (or in lieu of rent) $93»104 



ESTIMATED ADMINISTRATION AND OPERATING EXPENSES, TAXES, ETC. 

1. One- third of executives' salaries, salaries of depart- 

mental heads, office salaries, general office and 

miscellaneous expense $10,000 

2. Watchmen and watching supervision 2,500 

3. Advertising 3»000 

4. Interest on working capital — $50,000 at 7 per cent. 3,500 

5. Taxes ^^ 

6. Contingencies 2,676 

Total administration and operating expenses, 

taxes, etc $22476 

Total storage expenses 1 i5»58o 

Net income from storage 2,500 



/ 



^^ 



lip 



lill 



342 



ii 



f 




WHARF MANAGEMENT 



Analysis 



Storage 

income $1 18,080 divided by 
Storage 

expenses 115,580 " 
Profit 2,500 " 

Investment 

Working capital ...... 



(( 



(C 



Average 
Square Feet 
Floor Space 

Occupied 

61,500 

61,500 
61,500 



Dollars 
per Sq. Ft. 
per Year 



1.92 



1.88 
.04 



Cents 
per Sq. Ft. 
per Month 



16.00 
15.67 

•33 

$50,000 



2,500 divided by 50,000 = 5 per cent profit on investment. 

Attention is directed to the fact that the profit here indicated 
covers Storage only, profit arising from ownership of the building 
being provided for under Rent. The proprietor's salary is included 
in executives' salaries. 

Expense Items not Included in Estimate 

Bailee's responsibility and risk. 
Loss and damage on goods. 
Bad debts. 
Maintenance of private highways. 

Income Items not Included in Estimate 
Short periods of storage. 



(b) handling, (c) weighing and sampling, (d) miscellaneous 

extra service 

Estimated Income 

Receiving and delivering billed $80,000 

Weighing and sampling billed 7,000 

Extra service billed 9,000 

Total Income $96,000 



i 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 343 

Estimated Expenses 

1. Actual productive labor employed in receiving 

and delivering, weighing and sampling, and 

extra service $38,000 

2. Nonproductive labor 13'000 

3. Liability insurance 1»500 

4. Interest on investment in equipment — $50,000 at 

7 per cent 3»500 

5. Taxes i»^0 

6. Ten per cent depreciation on Item 4 5,000 

7. Repairs on Item 4 at 5 per cent 2,500 

8. Power and light 3»000 

9. Claims 500 

10. Two-thirds of salaries, etc $20,000 

Less amount charged to Car Service. . . 5455 HMS 

11. Interest on working capital — $26,000 at 7 per 

cent *»^^° 

12. Miscellaneous expense 4,000 

Total Expense $88,965 

Profit 7.035 

Investment 

Equipment $50,000 

Working capital ^^,000 

$76,000 
7,035 divided by 76,000 = 9.26 per cent profit on 
investment. 

Total expense $88,965 

Productive labor 3^,000 

Handling overhead expense $5^^9^S 

Per cent overhead expense 50,965 divided by 
38,000 = 134 per cent. 

(e) car service 

Estimated Income 

Unloading cars $21,000 

Loading cars - 15*000 

$36,000 




f '- 
', I 


i 


Li, , 


1 



344 WHARF MANAGEMENT 

Estimated Expenses 

1. Actual labor loading and unloading cars $14,000 

2. Nonproductive labor 6,800 

3. Liability insurance 700 

4. Interest on investment at 7 per cent: 

Land $16,000 

Tracks and platform 8,000 

$24,000 1,680 

5. Taxes 750 

6. Depreciation on tracks, etc 400 

7. Repairs on tracks, etc 750 

8. Share of executives' salaries, office salaries, etc. . 5»455 

9. Interest on working capital — $7,460 at 7 per cent 522 
10. Contingencies 1,678 

$32,735 
Profit 3,265 

Investment 

Tracks, etc $24,000 

Working capital 7,460 

$31,460 
3,265 divided by 31460= 10.38 per cent profit 
on investment. 

Total car service expense $3^,735 

Productive labor 14,000 

Car service overhead expense $18,735 

Per cent overhead expenses 18,735 divided by 
14,000 =134 per cent. 

PAY-ROLL DIVISION 

In order that the warehouseman may determine his costs accord- 
ing to the method proposed, it becomes necessary to distribute the 
pay roll. The foundation of this is the use of daily time cards, either 
in the hands of the individual laborers or gang foremen, giving the 
time of the man or men, information as to the lot of goods handled 
and the different services performed. To be of real value this must 
be carefully carried on with competent supervision and made to 



WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE 



345 



balance with the pay roll. A portion ^^f y-^"^^//;^^^^^^^^ 
tive labor costs and the balance nonproductive items, such as idle 
time, cleaning, moving merchandise to make room, etc. 

DETERMINATION OF OVERHEAD 

Next must be ascertained the overhead expense which applies to 
handling and other services. This is done by ^f -g.^. f ^^^J 
productive labor, the liability insurance, interest, depreciation taxes 
repairs to equipment and other items as shown m the classification 
of Expense B, C, D and E. 

COST DEPARTMENT 

We recommend that each warehouseman, if he has not already 
done so, organize a Cost Department, headed by a man who com- 
bines good accounting ability with a practical warehouse experience, 
furnishing him with as much assistance as is necessary to keep the 

work up to date at all times. ^^^^ a 

The American Warehousemen's Association has established a 
Central Bureau, referred to elsewhere in this work, which is pre- 
pared to furnish warehousemen specimen forms and mformation 
concerning methods of keeping cost figures. The Primer furnished 
by the American Warehousemen's Association outlines a simple 
method of cost finding. 

AN EQUITABLE PROFIT IN EACH DEPARTMENT 

Each department of the warehouseman's plant should show a 
profit at the end of the year. No service should be rendered without 
profit. All profits should be reasonable. 

Thus the Standard Warehouse Example shows profit alter 
making due allowance for profit on the building, interest on the 
investment, and after salary to the proprietor, as follows : 

e $2,500 

Storage ^ '^ 

Handling : 

Weighing, sampling and miscellaneous services 7,035 

Car Service 3» 5 

Total $^^'^°° 

No department should perform a service free or below cost to 



h:\V 



346 



WHARF 'management 



1 



1 1 



attract storage business, for indirect rebate is thereby given which 
will injure the business far more than the few dollars received for 
the storage gamed. 

This ideal condition, it is safe to say, has not heretofore existed 
in the warehouse industry. 

COKCLUSION 

The foregoing system of cost accounting and basis for tariffs, if 
knowledre : '"''"'^*"''''' "''" ^'^ *''* warehouseman the following 

Income, cost and profit of maintaining and operating each unit of 
warehouse space. 

Sill to'sm'' '°'' ''''^ ^'''^' ""^ ^""""^^'"^ '^'^ ^""^ ^^ merchandise from 
Income, cost and profit of loading and unloading cars. 
Income, cost and profit of weighing, sampling and all other 

services for which separate charges are made to the customer. 

.nZ /^ "'"'^'"^ i^''' ^'^^ ^' ^^ ""^^^^ ^'"''''^^'^ in quoting 

and defendmg prices and setting a new and higher standard for the 

entire industry. A warehouseman will then have no hesitation in 

quotmg rates to his customers because he will have that secure 

T.^ a/". %?'"' "' ^^''^ "P^^ P^°^^^ ^«s^s with a legitimate 
»ltd- -" -^^1- P"-it the warehouseman to L"ci 
by him "^'''"""'"^'^^'^ '"^ '^' ^^^i"§ ^^ merchandise to be stored 

Then, and only then, will the warehouse industry be enabled to 
nde out the squalls and serious storms which are bound to occur 
from time to time in the business world. 

Respectfully submitted, 

T. E. Witters, Chairman, 

In closing the authors wish to express the hope that this imper- 
fect pioneer effort will stimulate others to study the best methoTof 

r. n7lr • ^P^^^^^^j^/"^ ^o give the benefit of their experience to 
the public in printed form. ^ 



INDEX 



Accounting, steamship, 74- 

warehouse, 334* 

See also Operating costs. 
A-frame derrick. Ho- 
"Airplane" sling, 138. 

Baggage master, duties, 47. 
Banana unloader, 168. 
Barrels, stowing method, i»2. 

transfer method, I39' 
Belt conveyors in cargo transtcr, 

168, 170- 
Bridge crane, 160. _ 
Broken stowage, definition, i»o. 
effect on average stowage factor, 

Bulk cargo, definition and methods 
of handling, 38. 
stowing methods, 178. 
free-flowing, transfer methods, 

173. 
Bunkering, definition, 11. 

mechanical appliances used, 174- 
Burton-and-fall system in cargo 
transfer, 112. 

Cant hooks, 138. 

Car loading, instructions and dia- 
grams, 289. 
Cargo, classification, 37* 

damaged, record, 80. 

danger of shifting, 219. 

selection by stowage factors, 191 - 
Cargo list, 94- 
Cargo mast, 117. 
Cargo-sheet clerk, duties, 49- 
Cargo tonnage, definition, 31- 
Cargo transfer, by crane, 146. 

methods, loi. 

signaling, 132. 

through hatches, 109. 

through side ports, 106. 

time studies, 233. 
Cargo winches, 120. 



Cartage congestior. New Vork 
piers, 282. ... , 

Center of gravity, position m rela- 
tion to safety of vessel, 215. 

Chain sling, 143. . . 

Classification societies, influence m 

promoting safety, 205. 
Clearing the wharves, 230. 
Coaling. See Bunkering. 
Coffee sorting on wharves at JNew 

Orleans, 253. 
Colliers, characteristics, 43- . 
Congestion, drays. New York piers, 
282. 
wharves, Havana, 263. 
wharves. New Orleans, 253. 
wharves, Philadelphia, 272. 
Containers, list of important types, 

145. 
Conveyors, 168, 170. 
Cost accounting. See Accounting. 
Costs. See Accounting; Operating 

Costs. 
Cotton, stowage factor, 196. 
Crane versus ship's tackle m cargo 

transfer, 165. 
Cranes, types, 146. 

Damaged cargo, record keeping, 80. 

report, 82. , .^ ,- 

Dangerous goods, classihcation, 

221. 
definition and handling, 41. 
laws and regulations for trans- 
portation, 208. 
Dead-weight cargo, definition, 188. 
Dead-weight tonnage, definition, 

31. 
Deck loads, 200. 
Delivery, store-door system, 285- 

transit shed to warehouse, 296. 

wharf to dray, 282. 

wharf to railway car, 287. 
Delivery clerk, duties, 53. 

347 



i 



348 



INDEX 



INDEX 



349 



Delivery department, 53. 
Delivery notice to send goods to 

wharf, 92. 
Delivery order to release merchan- 
dise, 90. 
Depreciation, charges in ship opera- 
tion, 3. 
charges in warehouse accounting, 
335. 
Derricks, types, 146. 
Detective force on wharves, 54. 
Directors of steamship companies, 

responsibilities, i. 
Discharging cargo, definition, 11. 
Discharging receipt book, 79. 
Displacement, definition, 31. 
Dock, definition, 36. 
Dock receipt, 92. 
Dock winches, electric, 127. 
Dockage, definition, 11, 13. 
Drafts, assembling and appliances 
used in transfer, 136. 
starting and stopping, 132. 
Drum end, operation, 115. 
Dunnage, definition, 11. 
use in stowage, 180. 



Economies, example of saving in 
port expenses, 9. 

Electric elevators in warehouses, 
297. 

Electric trucks, use in cargo trans- 
fer, 232. 

Electric winches, 126. 

Elevating, definition, 12. 

Elevators in warehouses, 297. 

Extension clerk, duties, 50. 

Free-flowing bulk freight, transfer, 

.173. 
Freight handling, comparative costs 

by hand truck and by tractor 

and trailer, 250. 
Freight manifest, ship's, 97. 
Full cargo, definition, 187. 

Gang work by longshoremen, 59. 

Gangs, division of work in stowing, 
181. 

Gantry cranes, 152. 

General cargo, definition and meth- 
ods of handling, 40. 

Grain, regulations for stowage, 
207. 



Gross tonnage, definition, 31. 
Guy derrick, 149. 

Hammerhead crane, 151. 

Hand trucks, use in cargo transfer, 
106, 231. 

Harbor dues, 11. 

Hatch vessels, 42, 43. 

Havana, wharf congestion and rec- 
ommendations of Joint Cuban- 
American Commission, 263. 

Heavy-duty cranes, 160. 

Inbound freight accounting, 77. 

See also Accounting. 
Insurance underwriters, influence 

in promoting safety, 204. 
Interest, charges in ship operation, 
3. 

Joint Cuban-American Commis- 
sion, recommendations for re- 
lief of wharf congestion at 
Havana, 263. 



Laws governing stowage, 201. 

Left-hand winches, 122. 

Lien on goods for freight charges, 

89. 
Lighter clerk, 49. 
Lighterage, definition, 12. 
Lighters, service in loading and 

unloading, 34. 
"List" of vessel, 217. 
Live stock, regulations for trans- 
portation, 207. 
Loading, automobiles, 144. 

bags of merchandise, 139. 

barrels and hogsheads, 139, 182. 

beef, 141. 

dried apples, 142. 

eggs, 142. 

ingots and billets, 142. 

iron safe, analysis of operations, 
140. 

locomotives, 144. 

steel rails, 143. 
Locomotive crane, 149. 
Locomotives, stowing of assembled, 

199. 
Longshoremen, classification, 57. 

decrease in efficiency, 52. 

definition, 55. 

division for gang work, 59. 



Longshoremen, methods of hiring, 

58. 

National Adjustment Commis- 
sion award, 68. 

union membership, 63. 

wage scales, 64, 70. 

working conditions, 67. 
Loose-pulley fall in unloading lake 
vessels, 107. 

Manifests, 97- 

Mechanical aids in stowing, 179- 
Mechanical conveyors, 108. 
Measurement of packages, record, 

94. 
Measurement ton, definition, 29. 
Moisture, danger to cargo, 223. 

National Adjustment Commission, 
award of wages to longshore- 
men, 68. 

Net sling, 138. , ^ 

New Orleans, wharf congestion 
and recommendations for re- 
lief, 253. 

Operating costs of vessel, daily 
averages for four vessels, 3' 

items in account, 4. 
Outbound freight accounting, 91 • 

See also Accounting. 
Outward foreign manifest, 97. 
"Over-landed" cargo, 83. 

Package freight, stowing methods, 

179. , 

Packing, effect on stowage and 

freight rates, I97- 

"Paper work" in steamship opera- 
tion, 74- , , r 

Philadelphia, study of wharf con- 
ditions, 272. 

Pier, definition, 36. 

Pier rent, definition, 14. 

Pier superintendent, duties, 45. 

Pilfering, precautions against, 226. 

Pilotage, definition, ii. 

Planning the stowage, 176. 

Platform sling, 138. 

Port expenses of vessel, amounts 
by items, port of New York, 6. 
effect of wharf design, 27. 
methods of reducing, 9> 24. 

Port warden's fees, 11. 



Precious cargo, definition and 

handling, 41* . 

Profits in ship operation, factors 

affecting, i. 
Quay, definition, 36. 

Railroads, discrimination in wharf- 
age and dockage charges, i5- 

Receiving clerk, duties, 48. 

Refrigerator ships, 44- 

Removal of merchandise, notice to 
consignee, 85. . 

Rigging for transfer by wmches, 
120. 

Right-hand winches, 122. 

Rope sling, 136. 



Seaworthiness of vessels, laws de- 
fining, 202. 

Shifting of cargo, 219. 

Ship operation,. See Operating 
costs. 

Ship's tackle versus crane in cargo 
transfer, 164. 

Shop crane, 158. 

"Short-landed" cargo, 83. 

Side ports, 42, 106. 

Signaling in cargo transfer, 132. 

Single boom and skid in cargo 

transfer, in. 

Slings, 136. 

Specialized equipment m cargo 

transfer, 166. . 

Stevedore, qualifications and duties. 

Stevedoring, analysis of cost, 23. 
cost in relation to other charges, 

6, 7, 17- 

rates in Philadelphia, I7' 
Stiff-leg derrick, 147. I49- 
Storage, definition in ship opera- 
tion, 12. 
definition of terms, 303. 
fundamentals, 308. 
instructions for removing mer- 
chandise, 319' 
instructions for stowing mer- 
chandise, 313- 
Storage order for goods left on 

wharf, 87* 
Store clerk, duties, 47. 
Stowage, broken, 180, I97« 



Ll^. 



' 






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i ■ 


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350 



INDEX 



! 



i< 



is j 



Stowage, damage to vessel and 
cargo avoided by careful, 32. 
effect on profits in ship opera- 
tion, 29. 
laws and regulations, 201. 
planning from cargo list, 176. 
responsibility of vessel owners 

for safe, 203. 
space required by specified com- 
modities, 30. 
Stowage clerk, duties, 46. 
Stowage factor, application in se- 
lecting cargoes, 191. 
average for steam and sailing 

vessels, 191. 
definition, 188. 
reduction, examples, 196. 
Stowage plan, charts, 98, 185. 

discussion, 98, 182. 
Stowing methods, 178, 195. 
Straight-line crane, 163. 
Superintendent of wharf, responsi- 
bility for profitable operation, 



Vermin, methods of combating, 

Vertical belt conveyors, 170. 172. 
Vessels, laws defining seaworthi- 
ness, 202. 
responsibility of owners for 

safety, 202. 
special construction for com- 
modities with low stowage 
factors, 194, 200. 
types, 42. 
Voyage account, 74. 



Tally sheet for lighter transfer, 79. 

Tally slips, receiving and delivery, 
78. 

Tallymen, duties, 50. 
Tank vessels, 43. 

Telphers, use on wharves, 232. 
Temperature, danger to cargo, 224. 
Time studies in cargo transfer, 

233. 
Timekeeper, duties, 52. 
Tonnage, definitions, 31. 
Towage, definition, 11. 
Tower crane, 150. 
Transfer. See Cargo transfer. 
Trucks in cargo transfer, 231. 
Turn-around of vessel, effect on 
profits, 2. 

Uniform-package freight, definition 

_ and handling, 39. 
Union of longshoremen, 62. 

Ventilation, importance in safe car- 
riage of cargo, 226. 



^ages of longshoremen, 64, 70. 
! Warehouses, relation to efficient 
wharf management, 28. 
Warehousing, average occupancy 
of storage space, 329. 
classification of goods for stor- 
age, 326. 
cost accounting, 334. 
definition of terms, 323. 
report of committee on standard- 
ization, 321. 
rules for management, 299, 323. 
Wear and tear, effect in cargo 

handling, 228. 
Web sling, 137. 
Wharf, definition, 36. 
Wharf charges and dues, 10. 
Wharf congestion, Havana, and 
recommendations of Joint 
Cuban-American Commission, 
263. 

New Orleans, and recommenda- 
tions for relief, 253. 

Philadelphia, study, 272. 
Wharf design, effect on port ex- 
penses, 27. 

Wharf efficiency and shipping prof- 
its, I. 
Wharf equipment, 37. 
Wharf office organization, 45. 
Wharf superintendent, qualifica- 
tions, 45. 
Wharfage, definition, 12. 
Winches, electric, 126. 

kinds and types, 122. 

operation, 120. 

right-hand and left-hand, I22. 



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